


East of the Sun, West of the Moon

by jericks3



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bears, Bearstoff, F/M, Fluff, Horniness, Kristanna, Light Angst, Magical Realism, Modern AU, Modern Magic, Mythology - Freeform, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:02:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 47,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21684961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jericks3/pseuds/jericks3
Summary: Anna moves to Norway to live with her sister. She is greeted by a whole different world where magic is not a fantasy, and myths are not the stuff of legend.
Relationships: Anna/Kristoff (Disney), Elsa/Honeymaren (Disney)
Comments: 308
Kudos: 386





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yesterday I gave myself a stern talking to about prioritizing my time, and not spending quite so much of my day writing Krsistanna…  
> Then I woke up and immediately started this multi-chap fic.  
> Here's my try at some Bear!Kristoff stuff. Hope you all enjoy!

“Elsa,” Anna said, looking out into the gray, Norwegian sky, “I really don’t think you should be doing this.”

“Trust me,” Elsa said strapping on her camera bag with military-like precision, “I’ll be fine.”

“It’s just… the weather really does not look good, and I would just be much more comfortable if you didn’t-“

“Listen,” Elsa placed a gentle hand on Anna’s shoulder, “this is my job. I’m a wildlife photographer, and I _have_ to go see if the reports are true. If this phenomenon is really happening and I can get a picture of it… I just really don’t think you realize what this means to me.”

“Ahtohallan sounds like a myth.” Anna whispered.

Elsa gave a slight scowl.

“I know that it can be kind of lonely for you here when I’m gone, but… you came to stay with _me_ , remember? And I’m glad you did, really, but…This is my home now. This is what I do for a living. Just. Believe in me, okay?”

“Okay.” Anna whispered softly, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Why don’t you go into town today and make some friends? The owner of the tavern off the square is named Yelana. If you tell her you’re my sister, she’ll take care of you.”

Anna merely nodded.

“And Olaf will keep you company!” Elsa reached down and gave her fluffy white dog a quick scratch on his ears and he gave a happy yap.

“Now I gotta go.” Elsa gave her a quick hug and then bounded out the door, looking entirely too happy for somebody who was running out into a storm.

“Be safe.” Anna called after her, but Elsa didn’t reply.

Then she went back inside and flopped on Elsa’s couch for a moment.

Letting oneself be completely overrun with sadness didn’t exactly seem like the wisest move, but Anna did it anyway.

She wasn’t exactly sure why she thought coming to Norway was going to somehow give her a sense of purpose. She thought it would be nice to be close to Elsa. She thought she might feel some connection to her mother’s homeland. She thought that she might get hit by some lightening bolt of revelation on what to _do,_ but so far nothing had happened.

Here she was, in a foreign country, far away from everything she’d ever known, and she didn’t even speak the language. Luckily, most people spoke English, but it was still disheartening whenever she’d ask for directions and then people would mutter things that she couldn’t understand their breath.

She supposed whatever they were muttering was true though. Especially if it was that she was just an airheaded tourist with too much time and money on her hands. She had no job, no degree, no real home, she no longer had a fiancé, and apparently her sister went running off into questionable weather often. But at least she had plenty of money from her trust fund!

That thought made her feel like a remarkably privileged cry baby.

Anna swiped a quick tear away.

She supposed she should count her blessings. It could be worse. She could be destitute. She could have been married and she would be going through divorce proceedings now. Even worse, she could have had a _child_.

For some reason that made her even sadder, because while she was so grateful she hadn’t brought a baby into the mess that was her life she couldn’t help but feel a pang. She was probably never going to be a mother now.

It seemed silly, but that was the only thing she’d ever really known she _wanted_ when she grew up. She had always wanted a husband and a few babies.

Well, now she was bumming on her sister’s couch with no future in sight.

Olaf had struggled to climb up onto the couch, but he had been determined and was licking her hand incessantly.

“Ugh.” Anna groaned and made herself sit up. “You’re right, Olaf. I’ve got to get out of this house.”

She didn’t have much in the way of ‘weather appropriate’ gear, but she put on some boots that sort of had tread, and a coat that she thought might be waterproof.

She clipped a little leash on Olaf, being sure to put on the doggy sweater Elsa insisted he had to wear anytime he went outside.

Then she took a deep breath and she set off towards town.

*****

“You’re Anna.” A deep voice said as soon as she sat down at the bar of the little pub Elsa had told her about.

Anna looked up in surprise.

“Yelana!” The man called swinging a towel over his shoulder. “Anna’s here! I’m Mattias by the way. It’s lovely to meet you.”

“Um,” She shook the hand he extended. “Pleasure’s all mine. How… how did you know… ?”

“Your sister told us you were coming to stay with her.” Mattias said jovially. “You look just like her! And, of course, you have Olaf with you! Who’s my favorite little doggie in the whole wide world!”

Mattias picked Olaf up and held him to his face to receive puppy kisses.

“Wash your hands after you’re finished petting him.” A rather severe looking woman said coming out from the back, then she spotted Anna. “You look like your mother. Just with red hair.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Anna was feeling a touch overwhelmed. “You knew my mother?”

“Yes.” The woman, who she took to be Yelena, said matter-of-factly. “Iduna came from our people.”

“I knew she was from here, I just… Wow.” Anna sighed in amazement. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

Yelena came around the bar and took both of Anna’s hands in her own and looked deeply into her eyes.

Anna was too stunned by the motion to do anything but stare back. She’d never felt particularly ‘in touch’ with her heritage, at least not the same way Elsa did. But when she looked into this woman’s eyes she suddenly felt as if there might be some small sliver of hope for her here.

She waited for Yelena to speak. Her face was so wise, and so powerful, she knew that whatever it was she had to say to her, it would be profound. Life altering, even.

“You need a real coat.” Yelana said simply and let Anna’s hands drop. “I’ll have my daughter take you out to get one.”

Anna felt a bit bewildered, and she looked at Mattias, the only other person in the pub, hoping he might be able to explain the strange interaction she’d just had, but he merely shrugged and smiled.

“After 35 years, I’ve learned to never question Yelena.”

“35 years, 5 months, and 28 days.” Yelena grumbled. “And don’t think for a moment that means you have any job security here. Get back to work.”

Mattias merely rolled his eyes and handed Olaf back to Anna.

*****

Staying with Elsa only got stranger.

Anna had been wrapped in her white-collar, corporate driven, American world for such a long time. She didn’t even realize that people and places that were this _odd_ existed any longer. Places where magic was spoken of so plainly, and not as if it were just a story. People that adopted you into their lives, into their families with no question.

As promised, Yelena sent her daughter, Honeymaren, out with Anna to find a real coat from Wandering Oaken’s.

Anna was grateful to finally have someone that was close to her age to talk to, and she liked Honeymaren a lot… but she got the distinct impression that Honeymaren was more interested in what Elsa was doing.

“So, how’s your sister?” Honeymaren asked as they rummaged through coats on the sales rack.

“She’s… busy.” Anna said. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh,” the faintest hint of a blush tinged Honeymaren’s cheeks, “she just told me about her most recent project, and it sounded… well very fascinating.”

“That Ahtohallan stuff?”

“Yes! If she can find it and get a picture of it… It will just be really meaningful to our people.”

“Why?” Anna asked confused.

“It’s something that people have tried to take away from us for years.” Honeymaren rolled her eyes. “And don’t even get my mom started on the subject, or she’ll spend hours talking to you about how colonization has basically destroyed our culture.”

“But… what exactly is Ahtohallan?”

“Nobody really knows.” Honeymaren said with a shrug.

“Is it like a weather phenomenon?”

“Not exactly.”

“Well then what exactly is Elsa looking for?”

“See, that’s just the beauty of it! We don’t really know! Nobody has seen Ahtohallan in so long, nobody even knows what it looks like anymore. Some people have claimed some sightings recently, and that’s what Elsa’s so excited about. But we can’t really be for certain.”

“So… basically my sister is running out into the wilderness on a wild goose chase?”

“I wouldn’t put it quite like that.” Honeymaren’s brow crimped. “I think it’s really incredible what she’s doing.”

“Hmm.”

“Oh look!” Honeymaren held out a purple coat. “This would look so cute on you.”

*****

“So,” Anna said broaching the subject with Mattias after she’d been quickly becoming a regular at Yelena’s pub, “what is all this Ahtohallan stuff?”

“Oh,” Mattias said lowering his voice and leaning in close, “it’s something very sacred to Yelena and her people… well your people too.”

“Yeah, but what is it?”

“I’m not really sure, if I’m honest? It’s like a spirit, I think. Really, I’m not the one who should be telling you about it, but I doubt you want to bring it up to Yelena. I would actually talk to Ryder about it.”

“Ryder?”

“Yeah, Honeymaren’s little brother. He’s a bit… goofy. But he’s a good kid.”

“Okay.”

*****

“Oh yeah!” Ryder said as he fed a reindeer from his palm. “Ahtohallan is super cool.”

If a month ago, (no, two weeks ago), you had told Anna that she would be casually conversing with a boy about some ancient mythology while he fed a reindeer, she would have thought you were crazy. Yet, here she was.

“So, what exactly is it?”

“It’s like our… mother.” Ryder said with a shrug. “It’s like a river, or something, that lies across the sea. Every now and again you can see it reflecting on the sky, and it’s said to hold all the answers you seek.”

“So that’s what my sister is trying to photograph?”

“Yeah,” Ryder then turned to look at her with a cocked eyebrow. “So… your sister and my sister, huh?”

“So, you’ve noticed that too?” Anna couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yep. We’ll be family before you know it. I hope you’re prepared for our holiday get togethers. They’re crazy.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Anna chuckled.

"Oh, that will basically make you my big sister! I've always wanted a big sister."

"You already have a big sister."

“That is true, but it'll be cool to have another one. Two other ones counting Elsa! Honestly though, if Elsa wants to go around taking pictures of mythical stuff to help our heritage or whatever, she should really look for the Great White Bear.”

“Wait, what?” Anna felt her eyebrows disappear into her hair. “The Great White what now?”

“The Great White Bear!” Ryder had moved on to feed another reindeer. “See, I know for a fact that one is real, this guy here likes to go hang out with him! Don’t you, Sven?”

Ryder wrapped his arm around the reindeer’s neck and then put on a ridiculous voice.

“’Yes, I do! The Great White Bear and I are gooood friends!’”

“Wait,” Anna shook her head, “you can’t be serious.”

“No, I actually am.” Ryder’s eyes went wide. “I’ve seen Sven walking with the Great White Bear before.”

“There aren’t bears here though.” Anna shook her head. “Right?”

“Well the Great White Bear isn’t like a normal bear.” Ryder shrugged. “He’s like… the protector of the forest. The king, if you will.”

“But he’s a real bear? And you’ve seen him?” Anna was starting to feel a bit panicked.

She had let Olaf out by himself to go to the bathroom. And there were bears roaming about??

“Oh yeah! Loads of times. He and I have a sort of… friendship, I guess? I mean, he doesn’t eat me when I see him. So that’s something, right?”

“Are you just messing with me? “

“Nope. If you were to ask my mom, she’d tell you that the Great White Bear and Ahtohallan were connected. Some people say that that’s where the whole legend East of the Sun West of the Moon comes from.”

“East of the Sun, West of the Moon? What is that?”

“Honestly, you’ll have to ask my mom. Just be prepared for a longwinded discussion about how people have taken our stories and turned them into fairy tales.”

“Noted.” Anna said.

*****

Anna googled it. That felt safest.

East of the Sun West of the Moon seemed to be some sort of ancient story. Something about a handsome prince (sometimes called King Valemon?), cursed by trolls and turned into a bear. Then there was some sort of castle involved? It was all very unclear, and there were so many retellings of the story that it was hard to figure out what was what and where it originated.

Some people believed that it was where the Beauty and the Beast story came from, because apparently this bear could only turn back into a human if some beautiful young maiden kissed him.. or washed candle wax out of his shirt or something?

It was all super hard to follow.

Maybe she should ask Yelena.

*****

“Yelena,” Elsa said brimming with excitement. “I think I figured it out! I think I’ve finally put it together. I need to go looking for Ahtohallan at sunset. That’s when people claim to see it! As the sun sets and the moon rises, and the northern lights come into the sky.”

“You want to go out at night?” Anna asked, filling with worry and dread.

“Yes! I just… I have a gut feeling.” Elsa said, her eyes bright in a way that Anna had never seen before. “It’s almost like I can hear her calling to me.”

“Wow.” Honeymaren said from her position on Elsa’s other side, sighing and putting her head into her hands.

“Wait,” Anna said, “you said as the sun sets, and the moon rises?”

“Mhmm! I’ve talked to all the people who claim to have seen Ahtohallan recently, and I did a bunch of research on when the last sightings were, and that’s when they see it. The next few days will be the perfect time to go look, because the sun sets just as the moon rises!”

“Like the story? East of the Sun, West of the Moon.” Anna piped up.

Honeymaren gave Anna a bit of a wide-eyed panicked look that she took to mean ‘what have you done?’.

“You’ve been doing your research, then?” Yelena raised an eyebrow.

“Erm… yes?” Anna said guiltily, preparing for long winded speeches everyone had warned her about.

“Well, East of the Sun, West of the Moon has it’s roots in _our_ story, there’s no question of that. It’s just been adapted over the years. As all stories are.” Yelena told her gracefully.

“What does that have to do with the Great White Bear, though?” Anna couldn’t help but ask.

She was, frankly, unsure what to think of the whole Ahtohallan business. But the Great White Bear… Ryder claimed to have actually seen it.

“The Great White Bear, the Great Brown Bear… it’s changed over the years. It’s a spirit that protects the forest.” Yelena explained briefly. “Some say he turns into a man at night. Some say he turns into a man only at certain times of the year… either way, he’s connected to Ahtohallan in that she is the source of his magic.”

“Do…” Anna tried to phrase the question carefully. “Do you think it’s real?”

“Only Ahtohallan knows.” Yelena said, and Anna thought she detected a hint of a smile.

*****

It was dark and Elsa wasn’t back yet. Anna was both mad and worried. She had told Elsa time, and time, and time again to be careful and not to go too far. But what if this was the time that she was going to find that her sister had disappeared? That she’d been too close to a cliff trying to get a picture, slipped into the icy sea below, and been swept away without a trace. 

“Yelena!” She hadn’t meant to shout, but as she came into the tavern, she was yelling. “Elsa is not back yet!”

Anna was so preoccupied that she didn’t notice the man who was leaving at the same time she was entering. She would have slammed into him, if he hadn’t quickly grasped her by the shoulders, and bodily moved her to the side.

“Whoaw!” She said looking up in surprise.

She was greeted by a very muscular chest, a pair of honey colored eyes, and a mop of messy blond hair.

“You're american.” Was all he said, and he looked faintly amused.

“I… Yes.” She was suddenly a bit frustrated, because while she _had_ nearly run into him, he was still gripping her shoulders (not tightly, but she noticed the pressure of his hands acutely). “Can I help you?”

He merely smirked and let her go.

“Takk, Yelana.” He called over his shoulder, and then left without another word.

“Ha det.” Yelana replied from somewhere in the back.

Anna was left standing in the entryway of the pub a bit disoriented. What had just happened? Why hadn’t she apologized for nearly bowling into a complete stranger? Why had she been so fixated on the way his mouth curved up when he smirked? Why had his hands been so big?

“Anna, did I hear you come in?” Yelena’s voice brought her back to her task at hand.

Right. Elsa. She was still gone.

“Yelena.” Anna said pulling off her coat and hanging it on a hook. “Elsa is still out, and I have no idea where she is!”

“Oh, she was taking Honeymaren out to try and catch a glimpse of Atohallan.” Yelena said.

“Oh.” Anna said abruptly.

So that was it. Her sister was out on a date.

“Well.” Anna stammered a bit embarrassed for her overreaction. “Then. Nevermind. Who… Um who was that?”

“Hmm?”

“Who was that man who was just in here?”

“Oh, that’s Kristoff.” Yelena didn’t offer any more information than that.

“Oh, is Kristoff already gone?” Ryder said coming out from the kitchen. “Darn, I was hoping to catch him.”

“Who is Kristoff?” Anna asked Ryder, because she knew he would be more ready to give information about people than Yelena.

“He lives up the mountain a ways and looks after a herd of wild reindeer.” Ryder explained. “It sounds silly, but he also harvests ice. He delivers it for a big ice carving competition we have ever year. Your sister actually won last year. I don’t know if she told you.”

“Mhmm… Does he come here often?”

“Kristoff? No, not really. He mostly makes it down later in the evenings on winter days. He stocks up then heads out again.”

“What was he doing here?”

“Don’t tell my mom I told you this,” Ryder lowered his voice and leaned closer, “but she makes the best candied carrot cake you’ve ever tasted. Kristoff loves the stuff.”

“Gotcha.”

“Why so curious, though?” Ryder wiggled his eyebrows a bit suggestively. “Gotta crush on the mountain main?”

“What, no! Ew, gross. I was just…” Anna stammered. “Stop looking at me like that, Ryder!”

“Well, I just gotta warn you, as a reindeer herder myself, it’s a very tricky business getting romantically involved with us. It is not something I would recommend getting tangled up in. We have neither the time, nor the energy for love. Our hearts rest solely with our herd.”

“Got it.” Anna chuckled.

“But I do know Kristoff is single. In case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t. Thanks.”

"Never found love."

"Got it."

"Lonely, and heartsick."

"Ryder. Stop."

“Just thought I’d offer the information.” Ryder shrugged.

*****

“I know there is a storm moving in, I’ve seen the radar.” Elsa had told her as she buttoned up her coat and strapped on her heavy-duty boots. “I’m just going to be gone for twenty minutes.”

“Elsa, I am begging you, do not go out there.” Anna had tried, she truly had. "You won't even be able to see anything."

“I caught a glimpse of it yesterday, Anna. I know it's there."

"Please, Elsa. This is dangerous and you are not being careful."

"I will be back before it’s even dark.” She had repeated firmly.

That had been thirty-seven minutes ago.

Now it was snowing.

Anna swore angrily under her breath as she put on her own coat, and a borrowed pair of Elsa’s boots. Her own shoes were just not going to cut it.

“Olaf.” Anna said to the little white dog. “Hold down the fort.”

His yap seemed a bit concerned, but Anna ignored it as she donned a hat, scarf, and gloves. She then grabbed a flashlight and braved the cold.

******

She knew instantly that she’d made a mistake. She didn’t really know where she was going, and she was having a hard time seeing the path. This _was_ the way Elsa took down to the cliffs by the sea, right?

Snow began to swirl around her, and she’d been walking for quite some time. It was cold. Very, very cold.

“Elsa!” She cupped her hands around her mouth, trying desperately to get her voice to carry over the wind. “Elsa!”

There was no reply.

Anna stuffed her hands under her armpits, hoping to get a little bit of warmth back in her fingertips, but it didn’t really seem to help.

As she was picking her way along a particularly haphazard part of the path, the wind blew sharply up around her blinding her for a moment. She stumbled, and then a rock slipped out from underneath her feet and she went tumbling down a steep hill.

When she finally stopped rolling, she realized that she was, unfortunately, bleeding from a deep gash on her head.

“Oh great.” She cursed. “This is such a stupid way to die.”

She was having trouble getting to her feet because the world was rocking underneath her. She didn’t think she’d boarded a boat? Had she? No. Definitely not.

She seemed to be in a little moss-covered valley full of very round and smooth stones. Was it her imagination or were they moving? No, they couldn’t be, she was just losing her mind.

The snow didn’t seem to be reaching the valley floor. Or if it was, it was melting due to several hot springs that left swirling paths of steam up into the sky. The wind wasn’t harsh down here either.

Then Anna saw what had to be the weirdest scene she had ever seen in her entire life.

There was a reindeer. And a bear. Just standing together. Huddled up together, it looked like they were having a very important conversation.

“Sven?” Anna asked.

The reindeer looked up and gave a happy grunt. He then trotted up to her to nuzzle her hand for a treat.

Then the bear stood up to its full height.

It wasn’t white, like Ryder had described. The snow was white. Her sister’s hair was nearly white. This bear was blond. A sandy colored blond.

And it had brown eyes. Honey colored-brown eyes that looked at her with recognition.

“Great.” Anna said putting her hand to her head. “I must be dead.”

The bear gave a chuff. It sounded like a laugh.

Then Anna passed out.

***** 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it!!
> 
> Kisses to you all!!

Anna wondered why she was so sleepy. Why did her body feel so heavy, and her mouth so dry? And why did it feel like someone had stuffed her head full of cotton?

Somebody was calling her name, she thought. Why else would she be waking up?

“Anna?"

The voice sounded very worried.

“Anna? Please say you can hear me?”

“Elsa, geroff me.” She mumbled, pushing her sister away. “’snot time to get up.”

Suddenly Elsa was hugging her tightly and crying.

“What?” Anna moaned, trying to get the weight off her.

“Oh, thank goodness! You’re okay!!

What did that mean?

Suddenly she remembered. She’d gone after Elsa in a storm and now…

Her eyes flew open and she realized they were in Elsa’s living room. Anna was lying on the couch with a bandage over her head.

Olaf was sitting square on her chest and yapped happily when he saw her eyes were open.

“What happened?” She asked Elsa, sitting up and letting Olaf jump down beside her.

With a slight cringe when she touched her head and felt a bandage there.

“You were gone when I got back!” Elsa seemed like she had been crying a lot. “I called for a search and rescue team, but they said the storm was too bad to risk it, then out of nowhere somebody just knocked on the door and dropped you off!

“Somebody?” Anna repeated alarmed. “Was it a person?”

“Of course, it was a person,” Elsa said looking at Anna carefully, “what else would it be?”

“Elsa, I saw a bear! It was huge! I saw the Great White Bear!”

“Whoaw, whoaw. Slow down. You’ve hit your head pretty hard.”

“Oh, don’t start with me,” Anna snapped, “you go running off into blizzards every night chasing some mystical ‘ahtohallan’, and you’re going to try and be the rational one now?”

Elsa’s lips pursed together.

“What were you doing out in that storm, anyway?”

“I was chasing after you!” Anna gave a short breath of ironic laughter through her nose.

“Don’t follow me into storms, Anna!” Elsa’s volume rose considerably.

“Well then don’t run into storms!” Anna stood to her feet and yelled back. “Jesus, do you not realized that you could have died! It’s a blizzard!”

“Do you not realize that you nearly _did_ die! It’s lucky that somebody found you!” Elsa’s voice had raised, and tears formed in her eyes again. “I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if you’d died because you were being _stupid_ and went out after _me_!”

“ _I_ was stupid!?” Anna felt her temperature rising rapidly. “I went out after YOU! Who’s the stupid one, exactly? Because I specifically remember me telling, no _begging_ you not to do that!”

“Well the difference is that I actually know what I’m doing out there, and I can handle myself!” Elsa’s cheeks were flushed. “You don’t know what you’re doing at _all!_ ”

Then all of Anna’s strength suddenly seemed to be gone.

It felt a bit melodramatic, but she feebly put her hand up to her head and fell back onto the couch, feeling very woozy.

“Anna!” Elsa scrambled to try and catch her. “Oh, I’m so, so sorry! I didn’t mean that! I’m sorry.”

“I’m fine, Elsa.” Anna dismissed her, trying not to let her see just how much her words had hurt. “Just needed to sit back down is all.”

“Let me go get you some water.”

When Elsa had returned and she’d taken a sip, she suddenly realized she was missing an important detail to her story.

“Wait, who found me?”

“It was that herder, the one who lives up to the North.” She gestured her hand towards the mountain. “He comes down sometimes in the winter evenings.”

“Kristoff?” Anna asked sharply.

“Yes, I think that’s his name. Or Christopher or something.”

“When was he here!?” She tried getting back up, but Elsa pushed her back down firmly.

“Anna, sit down, you are not going anywhere. He brought you just after it got dark, and the storm has picked up since he left. Besides, he left a long time ago.”

“But you’re absolutely certain it was him?” Anna insisted. “He’s really tall, got broad shoulders, brown eyes, shaggy blond hair. Kind of a big nose, but it’s really well suited for his face.”

“Yes, that’s him.” Elsa’s eyebrow raised just a tick.

Anna didn’t say anything else but chewed on her lip. She started to furrow her brow, but that hurt too much.

“Now. Don’t move from this spot.” Elsa commanded, giving a gentle, but slightly awkward pat.

“Okay.” Anna sighed then suddenly had an idea. “Can you get me a piece of paper? And maybe some colored pencils if you have them?”

“Sure.” Elsa said giving her a confused look.

*****

“Wow, Anna these are really good.” Honeymaren said looking at her artwork.

“Thanks,” Anna said feeling a slight rush of pride.

“Seriously,” Honeymaren insisted, “Anna you have a gift. You really never went to school for this?”

“Well, I took one art class when I was in college.” Anna shrugged. “But… he-who-shall-not-be-named didn’t think it was a wise career choice.”

“Whoaw… You know Voldemort?” Ryder chimed in.

Anna rolled her eyes heavily.

“What a dick.” Honeymaren continued, ignoring her brother and still examining Anna’s sketches. “You are obviously way better off without him.”

“I know.” Anna said.

Her own words startled her for a second. Four weeks ago, she was still crying over a loser who kept her from developing her talents (and finishing college at all because he had insisted she wouldn’t need a degree when she was his wife). Three weeks ago, she moved here to try and slowly get over him, thinking it would take months and months.

Now she knew better. She _was_ better off without him. And it felt good to know it.

“Anyway,” Anna pushed on, “Ryder, is this what the Great White Bear looks like?”

“Yep! That’s him. I’ve never really seen him close up before, but the detail you put into the eyes is incredible.”

“Hmm.” Anna hummed staring at her own artwork again. “Yelena… Where should I go to get hiking boots?”

*****

“Where exactly are you going?”

“Not sure.” Anna shrugged. “I just need to get out of the house and explore.”

“Please do be careful.” Elsa warned her as she walked out of the house.

“Oh, somebody’s worried about their sister running off into the wilderness all alone?” Anna gave her a pointed stare.

“You’ve just had a head injury.”

“I’m better now.”

“Are you sure?” Elsa sighed. “Listen, I know I haven’t exactly been ‘safe’. I will take better care of myself… Besides, I think all the opportunities to photograph Ahtohallan are gone until next month.”

Anna gave her a rueful look.

“But please, please,” Elsa continued, “be careful. Don’t go too far and stick to this path in case I need to come after you.”

“I’m just going on a quick walk. I’ll be back before you know it.” Anna insisted, adjusting the backpack with her new art materials inside.

“Okay. Please just watch your step. Or maybe take Olaf with you?”

“What would Olaf do if I ran into trouble?” Anna laughed.

“I don’t know… bark?”

*****

Anna was looking for that valley. She knew it existed. She may have hit her head, but she knew such a unique place couldn’t have just fallen into her imagination unbidden.

But she couldn’t seem to find it, no matter how hard she tried.

Anna couldn’t lie to herself, she was looking for the bear too.

She knew it was an absolutely dangerous and ridiculous thing to do, but here she was.

After a few days she had almost let herself be convinced that she’d made it all up. She had hit her head very hard, and she’d taken everything Ryder and Yelena had been talking about the past few days and mashed it together with her meeting of Kristoff. It was just one big hallucination.

That’s when she found a set of tracks.

Two sets of tracks!

One set was clearly a bear. One set was clearly a reindeer.

“I knew it.” She breathed.

She tried following where the footprints led, but they diverged into a river that had a rocky bank.

For a long while she stared at the bear tracks and then wondered exactly what that meant.

Kristoff, the mysterious mountain man, was the one who had brought her back to her sister’s house and saved her life.

Not a bear.

*****

“So where exactly does Kristoff live?” Anna asked Ryder as casually as she could while she helped him feed his reindeer.

“Ooooh! Wanna go pay him a visit?”

“I just wanted to thank him.” Anna sent him a glare. “He saved my life.”

“I don’t really know where he lives, honestly.”

“You don’t?”

“Nope. Never been to his house before.”

“But he does have a house?”

“Of course, he does.” Ryder rolled his eyes. “This is Norway, remember? We freeze to death if we don’t have some place to stay.”

“But you said it was up the mountain a ways? Have you ever been up there before?”

“Nope.” Ryder shook his head. “We try not to mix up the herds if we can avoid it. Don’t want the wild ones getting too pampered, or the tame ones having to fend for themselves.”

“So, you really have no idea where he lives?”

“Nope.” Ryder shrugged.

Anna gave the reindeer in front of her a hard stare. Due to the markings (and the ridiculously flamboyant stitched collar Ryder had him wearing), she could tell it was Sven.

“Do you know where Kristoff lives?”

She could have sworn Sven nodded his head ‘yes’.

“So!” Ryder called. “How exactly were you planning on expressing your gratitude to Kristoff?”

“Ryder!” Anna snapped at him.

“Just wondering! Sheesh. Didn’t know if you were going to bake him cookies for your life debt, or maybe a pie...”

*****

Anna didn’t tell Elsa what she was up to. Because while the whole ‘hidden valley’ thing Elsa found both intriguing and completely likely, Anna knew her saying “I’m looking for a bear that has human eyes and I’m not exactly sure what that means” would not go over well.

Elsa would suddenly turn on her ‘big sister’ voice and give her a lecture about how she’d spent years learning survival skills for wildlife photography expeditions. Anna had never even owned a pair of hiking boots before Yelena took her to buy some the other day. Then she would take on a very know-it-all tone about the whole Great White Bear business.

For somebody obsessed with the myth of Ahtohallan, she didn’t seem to be convinced of a legend about a bear, despite the fact that both she and Ryder had seen it.

Anna had a sneaking suspicion that Honeymaren had seen it before too but didn’t want to bring it up.

“Oh, I’m just looking for more inspiration for my artwork…” Anna said when her sister asked her about her frequent excursions.

It wasn’t totally a lie. She was spending quite a bit more time drawing, and she was enjoying more than she had been expecting to. But it wasn’t her purpose in her hiking trips.

“It’s coming along beautifully. Really, I’m so proud of you. You should do something with this, you have a talent.”

“Oh…well, we’ll see.”

*****

After nearly a full month Anna had wandered over every square inch of countryside within a three-mile radius when the weather was cooperating.

And she had officially come up empty.

She wanted to go farther, but frankly she didn’t trust her ability to navigate back home. Her ‘survival’ skills were a bit better, but her sense of direction could only be labeled as ‘poor’. If she were honest, she even had a little trouble working the compass app on her phone.

She’d gone looking for Kristoff’s house, up the mountain a ways, but had quickly realized that she was inept at mountain climbing and opted to keep roaming the landscape between Elsa’s house and the seaside.

She wasn’t really sure why she needed answers about _what_ was happening here so badly. Maybe it was just because the whole thing was so ludicrous and would have never ever happened to her back in the states. Maybe it was just because she was unyieldingly curious. Or maybe she was just avoiding the deeper issue of the fact that she had yet to find a purpose for her own life. Running after fairytales felt like a good distraction. It was a ridiculous thing to think, but it had propelled her forward, so far.

Yet, she had mentally reached the point that she knew she had to stop. She was never going find whatever it was she was looking for. So, she might as well give up.

It was remarkably disheartening.

Anna unwound her scarf from around her neck as she entered Yelena’s tavern, and shuffled inside with a deep sigh.

“Doing alright, there?”

She looked up, and leaning against the edge of the bar, obviously waiting for somebody else, was Kristoff.

Anna blinked in surprise.

“Hey!” Was all she could say, and it came out as a bit of a strangled yelp.

“Hello.” He replied simply.

And there was that smirk, tugging on the edges of his lips again.

“I- you’re…” She felt so stupid suddenly. “You’re Kristoff! I’ve been looking for you.”

“Me?” He looked slightly amused.

“Yes!”

Anna bounded up to him and stood directly in front of him. Maybe a bit too close for strangers to be standing, but she had to, absolutely had to, get a good look at his eyes again. She looked up quite a ways due to his height.

Then she was staring directly at what she’d been sketching every day for nearly a month now. His eyes were big, and round, and such a soft color. She didn’t think she would ever be able to do them justice, no matter how hard she worked to perfect her craft.

_‘He is so hot’_

The thought was very loud inside her head. ‘Hot’ felt like such a rude and basic word… but boy was it true.

She had noticed before, obviously, but it had been in a vaguer and descriptive sense. Now it was all she could think. He was so very, very handsome. There was a ruggedness about him that was remarkably appealing. His square jaw, blunt nose, coupled with those sweet honey colored eyes-

But she only got to look for the briefest of moments, because Kristoff ducked his head and moved to the side just a bit so as to be out of her direct gaze.

“Well you’ve found me.”

Was it her imagination or did he look nervous?

“Yes. My sister said… she said you saved my life in that freak blizzard a month ago.”

Kristoff merely shrugged. She got the distinct impression that he was declining a response.

“I just wanted to say thank you.” Her words came out as whisper.

“Couldn’t let you die, could I?”

“No, really, Kristoff.” Anna reached forward and placed her hand on his arm. “Thank you.”

He started beneath her touch, his eyes meeting hers again.

“It was nothing.” His voice was soft.

She peered closer at him.

She wanted to come outright and _ask_ ; what exactly had she seen in that valley at twilight, all those weeks ago.

Anna knew she wouldn’t get an answer from him. In fact, he would most likely spend the rest of the time she was here avoiding her like the plague, just like he kept shying away from her direct eye-contact now.

“Heeey!” Ryder’s voice made both of them jump, and Anna took a step back. “So, I see you two have officially met. Kristoff, this is Anna. Anna, Kristoff.”

Kristoff took the box in Ryder’s hands quickly.

“Thanks, Ryder.” He then turned to Anna and gave her a curt nod. “It was nice to meet you, Anna.”

Then he swiftly left the tavern and Anna was left staring after him, her mouth open trying to form words that might somehow make sense.

“Look at that. You scared him off.” Ryder said, sounding very smug indeed.

“Shut up.” Anna scowled at him, then she suddenly had an idea. “Hey, do you happen to have any more of that candied carrot cake?”

*****

This was very dumb, and definitely not going to work, of that Anna was quite certain.

But still, she’d found a particularly beautiful spot, nestled in a little craggy hill, nearby where she’d first spotted bear tracks. It was an unseasonably nice day, still cold, but not so cold that she couldn’t stay out for a bit longer. She was bundled up fairly tight, and she had the time.

She carefully laid out a piece of Yelena’s candied carrot cake on a paper plate in the middle of the little clearing.

Then she found a little crevice in the hill to tuck herself into, and she waited.

*****

Anna was woken by the noise of a reindeer braying happily.

She hadn’t even realized she’d fallen asleep, and she quickly realized that it was quite late in the day.

Elsa was probably panicked, as Anna had told her she would be back well before dark, but here night was already approaching rapidly.

Anna started to shift her legs from underneath her but froze when she saw both a reindeer and a big blond bear walking through the clearing.

The reindeer (Anna realized even from the distance, it was Sven) was happily prancing up to the piece of carrot cake, looking remarkably pleased with himself that he’d found such a delightful treat just laying out in the open.

The bear, however, was grunting emphatically, and kept swinging his head side to side. It was clear he wanted nothing to do with the cake, so obviously laid out on purpose.

The Great White bear sniffed the wind carefully, obviously looking around for who had put out the cake, but he seemed unable to smell her. Anna breathed out the smallest sigh of relief.

Then the bear stood on his hind legs and gave a particularly adamant grumble (that bordered on a roar), and Sven slowed in disappointment. The melancholy look on the reindeer’s face was actually quite heart wrenching as he stared at the piece of cake.

Anna nearly fell from her spot when she saw the bear raise a paw and gesture at the sky.

It pointed! With a claw! Up at the sky above them.

Sven gave a disappointed bellow but left the carrot cake alone and followed the bear out of the little clearing.

Anna didn’t realize it, but she’d been holding her breath. When she released it, she thought she saw the bear pause, but then he kept walking. Lumbering alongside the happy reindeer.

Without thinking about it, Anna wiggled out of her hiding place, and as quietly as she could, she followed them.

_‘This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy. This is crazy!’_

Rolled around in her head on repeat.

Yet she crept along after them, keeping a far enough distance that if need be, she could turn and run (though she’d read somewhere bears were very fast?), but close enough that she could still see them, even in the fading light. The wind blew sharply into her face, making her eyes sting, but she realized that this was a good thing. She was downwind, and they wouldn’t be able to smell her.

The pair didn’t go very far, because just around the corner was the entrance to a little valley.

Anna had been over this stretch of land numerous times over the past few weeks, and she had never seen this place.

_‘This is insane! This is insane! This is insane!’_

Her feet kept moving her forward.

The bear and the reindeer trotted through side by side, and just as she slipped into the opening behind them, Anna heard a low rumbling noise, like rock shifting in its place.

When she turned, the little opening to the valley she’d just entered was gone. There was no way out.

She pressed her hand against the stone, to see if it moved, but it was solid.

“Oh, great.” She sighed.

She’d just effectively locked herself into an arena with a bear.

A small puff of steam coming from one of the nearby hot springs startled her.

That’s when she started to notice the round boulders that scattered the moss-covered floor were moving. Rolling along after the bear and the reindeer.

_‘This is not safe! This is not safe! You need to find a way out of here!’_

As if independent of the logical side of her brain (despite prior accusations, she did actually have one, she just chose not to listen to it often), her feet moved her forward to follow.

Whatever type of witchcraft was causing _rocks_ to move, she wanted to see it before it inevitably killed her.

As she rounded a sharp corner, there in middle of the valley, the very spot that she had fallen into, all the little boulders were converging on the bear and his reindeer companion.

Then in a moment, there was the briefest flash of light, before the sky went dark.

And the bear, who was standing on his hindlegs, gave a shudder.

That shudder rippled down his fur.

Then a very naked man was standing in its place.

A very naked Kristoff.

Anna felt her mouth fall open.

“Kristoff’s home!” Came a loud voice.

That’s when Anna realized that the little rocks were alive.

The gasp that came out of her mouth was involuntary and by no means quiet. She slapped her hand over her lips to try and cover the sound, but it was too late

Hundreds of little eyes turned to her and blinked.

And then Kristoff saw her.

*****


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lean pretty heavily into the bickering vibe from the first movie... So... I hope you all enjoy!!
> 
> T for minor language and sexual frustration

“It’s a girl!” Came a voice from one of the rocks.

“A girl!” The rest chorused, and then to Anna’s horror, several of them rolled toward her.

“Ah!” She gave a small shriek as the boulders rolled underneath her feet, knocking her legs out from underneath her and carried her towards Kristoff.

“Anna!” Kristoff looked incredibly surprised to see her there.

Sven gave a happy snort and pranced in place for a moment before coming closer to nuzzle her hand when the rocks dropped her in front of Kristoff. His arm automatically came out to steady her.

“What… What is happening?” Anna asked him completely flabbergasted.

“Umm… they’re trolls.” Kristoff gestured to the creatures around them.

Anna looked a little closer and she could see that each boulder had a face, with rounded features. Different trolls wore different apparel, and they had crystals that glowed and hung around their necks.

“Trolls… Trolls! Trolls are real!?” Anna turned back to Kristoff. “And you! You’re a bear! You were a bear! You’re the Great White Bear! I saw you… change! Oh! Jesus Christ, you are _completely_ naked!”

She realized that the trolls had deposited her directly in front of him, and she had to sharply avert her eyes, because she really wanted to look. She had already _sort of_ seen (and whoaw), but she did not need to ogle a man who she had only met in passing twice, not including the time he saved her life.

Ryder’s implications about how she should repay her life debt came clanging loudly back into her brain and she had to shut that part of her mind up resolutely.

Her cheeks were on fire.

“Uh, sorry, just… just one second.” He stepped away from her, and she wasn’t sure where he disappeared to, but when she could see he had returned (from the corners of her eyes, because she definitely wasn’t looking) he had what looked like a moss towel slung low on his hips.

There was still a lot of skin showing. Lots and lots of thighs. Lots of light brown hair that trecked down the lower part of his stomach and disappeared beneath his covering. Lots of broad chest and _really_ impressive arms.

“What… the HELL is going on?” She made herself look at his face.

She might be a flesh and blood woman with needs, but she was not going to spend time focusing on those things when there were literal trolls surrounding her.

“You are too curious for your own good.” Kristoff’s brow came together slightly in a scowl.

“Well curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.” Anna countered crossing her arms over her chest.

“Is that the full saying?”

He smirked again. That stupid smirk! Why did he have to do that?

“Yes, it is! So, you are going to tell me what in the actual hell is going on here? You’re not a bear anymore so you can’t eat me now!”

“I don’t eat people.” Kristoff rolled his eyes.

“Then get to talking!”

“Ooh!” One of the trolls who looked like she might be female, due to the arrangement of grass hair on her head, piped up. “She’s feisty! She’ll do so nicely for you Kristoff!”

“Ma, stop.” Kristoff scowled. “This is not the time.”

“Ma?” Anna repeated. “What. The. Hell!?”

“Would you stop saying that?” He grumbled back to her, and he sounded remarkably like a bear to her for a moment.

“No! Not until you start giving some explanations!”

“Well, you haven’t exactly given me a chance. You’ve been too busy going… crazy.”

“ _I_ am crazy? Me? You think I’m the crazy one here?” She gestured to him and then the trolls surrounding them.

“Just.” Kristoff reached out and put his hands on her shoulders. “Calm down.”

His hands felt warm even through her coat.

“Okay, okay.” She took a few deep breaths and then nodded. “I’m calm… I’m calm.”

“I am a…” He looked like he was struggling to find the right phrase, “shape-shifter?”

Anna nodded.

“And how exactly is that possible?” She asked.

“It’s… magic.” He shrugged and pulled a face that clearly wished he could use another word.

“Let me get a good look at her, Kristoff.” The female troll rolled forward and shooed Kristoff out of the way. “No need to keep her all to yourself. Hello, dear. Did I hear my Kristoff say your name is Anna?”

Anna looked into the creature’s dark eyes and was surprised by the kindness and warmth she found there.

“Yes.”

“I’m Bulda.” She smiled. “I’m Kristoff’s adopted mother. He’s never brought a girl home before, so we are all very excited to know everything about you.”

“Oh- I’m not-“

“I didn’t _bring_ her here.” Kristoff pinched the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb. “She snuck in.”

“You’re clever. I like it!” Bulda said, then she rolled up onto the back of another troll and was suddenly eye-to-eye with Anna, and she grasped her face. “Yes, you are lovely, too. Everything seems to be working properly. I say she’ll do well to break the enchantment, Kristoff.”

“What?” Anna said, eyes wide.

“Ma!” Kristoff growled (a very bear-like sound). “Stop. I already told you it’s not like that.”

“Break the enchantment?” Anna repeated. “What does that mean?”

“That’s none of your business!” Kristoff insisted, pushing back in front of Bulda so he was standing in front of Anna again. “Now let’s get you home. Right now.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Anna said holding up her hand. “What is this place?”

“It’s the Valley of the Living Rock. Let’s go.”

“And it’s got a magical entrance?”

“Yes. It opens for those who know the troll people.” Kristoff nodded.

“But it opened for me when I fell a month ago! How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. Any more questions?”

“Yes!”

“Well, we don’t have the time. You’re leaving.” He placed his massive hand on the small of her back and started pushing.

“No!” Anna insisted, turning sharply so she nearly bumped into his chest. “I’m not going anywhere until you give me more details.”

Kristoff rocked back on his heels and looked down at her carefully.

“You’re stubborn, aren’t you?”

“Very.”

Without another word, in one fluid motion he squatted down, caught her up around the waist and threw her over his shoulder.

“Hey!” She shrieked. “Put me down!”

“No.”

He then proceeded to stomp towards the valley’s exit, Sven prancing happily after them.

“Bye Kristoff!” Several of the trolls called.

“Bring your girlfriend back!” The littlest of the troll children insisted.

“She’s not my girlfriend.” He shouted over his shoulder.

“Think about what I said dear,” Bulda called after him, “she could break the enchantment.”

“Put! Me! Down!” Anna yelled, kicking violently against him.

“No!” Kristoff shouted back and his grip around her tightened to the point that it was nearly painful. “I’m taking you home.”

“Oh, look at it!” Anna thought she hear Bulda squeal. “The seeds of love already sprouting.”

“Arrgh!” Anna let out a scream of frustration and found that it was much easier to not fight Kristoff yet.

She’d wait for when he put her down. Then she’d attack.

*****

When the exit of the valley shifted and opened, they were no longer in the same place they entered.

Kristoff carried her out into a very well wooded area, and a few hundred feet away stood a small, quaint cabin.

“Wait… what? Where are we?”

“My cabin.”

“But- but… you live up the North mountain… how? We were not even a mile away from my sister’s house!”

“It’s magic.” Kristoff let that be his explanation.

It was much colder than it had been in the Valley of the Living Rock, and Anna noticed Kristoff was shivering acutely by the time they reached the door of the cabin.

He set her down harshly on the front step.

Anna thought he might try to push her in some other way, and she was prepared to clock him in the face, but he merely hurried into the cabin, leaving the door open behind him.

She hesitated at the threshold.

Should she follow him inside? Should she run for it? She had absolutely no idea where she was so that seemed like the least prudent of the two ideas.

So, she carefully stepped inside.

It was a simply kept place. Only furnished in the most basic way, and it was very clearly only meant for one person. There was a main floor that was a living room and kitchen area, then a little ladder up into a loft where she assumed there was a bed.

Kristoff hurried to flick on an electric heater against the wall, then darted up the ladder. The fact that the place had electricity surprised her. 

When he returned he was wearing clothes.

Anna let out a small huff of a breath.

Clothes were good. She would be able to think clearly.

“So… You live here?”

“Yes, I said it was _my_ cabin. Now please shut the door.” Kristoff instructed as he squatted down and held his hands out to the coils in the electric furnace.

Anna scowled at him but did as she was told, because if she were honest, she was getting cold, too.

“What about Sven?”

“I have a lean-to out back for him.” He grumbled. “He knows the way.”

“So. What… why are you… Erm… what…how?”

“When you figure out what you’re going to ask me, let me know.” Kristoff looked up at her with a small smirk on his lips.

Anna was tempted to just hit him square in the nose.

“Well, this has been just a tad overwhelming for me, I’ll have you know.”

“I can tell.”

The words weren’t rude. In fact, they were said in a much gentler tone. His face softened slightly when he looked at her, and there was understanding in his eyes.

“I just…” Anna put her gloved hands to her temples to try and straighten out her thoughts. “You’re a bear.”

“Not really.” He shook his head. “I’m a man… who happens to be a bear most of the time.”

“So, when exactly are you a bear?”

“During the day, for large parts of the month.”

“And when are you a man?”

“At night… when Ahtohallan sings.”

“Ahtohallan?” Anna gasped. “You mean, whenever the Ahtohallan phenomenon can be seen? When all the conditions are right? Is that what that flash of light was right before you changed?”

He nodded.

“So, you _are_ connected to Ahtohallan… East of the Sun, West of the Moon.” Anna muttered almost to herself, but she saw Kristoff lean back on his haunches.

“You’ve been reading up, I see.”

“Yes.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I have. So, what part of the fairytale is true, and what part isn’t.”

“Well, there have been a few men like me throughout time.” Kristoff said. “And I’m not exactly sure what their stories are. I’m sure the narrative has changed a bit over time. So, in answer to your question, I have no idea.”

“So, there’s not a troll princess vying to marry you?”

“No.” A smile tugged on the edges of his lips.

“Your real name isn’t King Kalemon?”

“Nope.”

“And you’re not like a thousand years old and cursed to live for all of eternity this way?”

“No.” Kristoff chuckled, and Anna found she liked the sound. “It’s not a curse, either.”

“It’s not?”

“No. When I was little, my parents were killed, and I was orphaned. The trolls took me in to keep me from freezing to death, but there is… ancient magic… laws, if you will, that permits humans from living with trolls. So, they protected me this way.”

“By turning you into a _bear_?”

“Mhmm. They asked before they did it, if that makes you feel better.”

“But the enchantment can be broken?”

“I- yes.” Kristoff suddenly looked annoyed again. “Now, I have to get you home. I’m sure your sister is worried sick about you.”

“How do you know about my sister?” Anna looked at him curiously. “Wait, how did you know where I was staying the first time you brought me home?”

She was surprised to see that his cheeks became a bit pink.

“I know almost everything that goes on around here.” He quickly dragged his fingers through his hair, pushing it back from his forehead. “Besides, the two of you have been running rampant around here. It’s been very difficult to avoid either of you. You especially.”

The conversation was clearly over, as he went to get a coat from a hook on the wall and pulled it on over his wide shoulders and flicked off the heater.

“Now, let’s go.”

“Wait, wait!” Anna insisted. “I still have so many questions.”

“Well, I’m done answering them.” He grabbed a pair of mittens and a hat and put them on.

“That’s rude.” She scowled at him. “Why are you such a grump?”

“Comes with the territory of being a bear.” He shrugged as he stomped his feet into a pair of large boots. “Now come on.”

Anna suddenly realized that it might not be wise to go with him. He was, for all purposes, a stranger. A stranger who had manhandled her quite a bit just a few moments before.

But so far, she had no reason to distrust him. He’d already saved her life once before, so she doubted he was going to hurt her now. And she could hardly stay and intrude in his home, no matter how cozy it was. Nor could she take off down the mountain herself, having absolutely no idea where she was going.

So, she followed him outside. He found Sven and brought him around to the front. In one quick move he jumped on the reindeer’s back.

“Come on.” He held a hand out to her.

“Are you serious?” Anna raised an eyebrow.

“Do I look like I’m joking?” He countered.

“Don’t you have a car?”

“How often do you think a bear gets the opportunity to drive?” He looked at her with a touch of exasperation.

“Fine.” Anna huffed, taking his gloved hand and let him pull her up onto Sven’s back so that she was tucked snug in his arms. “Don’t get any ideas.”

“Don’t worry.” He gave a small chuckle and Anna felt it vibrate into her back. “I’m the perfect gentleman.”

Anna gave an audible scoff.

“Oh, sure. Because picking up women and throwing them over your shoulder is just at the top of a gentleman’s to-do list.”

“Well, to be fair, you’re the only girl I’ve ever had to do that to.”

“I’m probably the only girl who’s ever come close enough for you to try something like that.” She scowled.

“Now who’s rude?” He said, but he didn’t seem too offended. “Come on, Sven. Let’s go.”

Sven gave a happy snort and set off a quick pace, heading down towards the base of the mountain.

*****

They had been plodding along, the northern lights illuminating their path, for nearly an hour before Kristoff spoke up.

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anybody.”

“About the fact that you’re a giant bear most of the time? Wouldn’t dream of it. I don’t think anybody would believe me anyway.”

“I-“ Her response seemed to surprise him and he chuckled. “Well I suppose you’re right.”

“Ryder would have an absolute fit though.” Anna laughed. “He’s got a bit of a crush on you when you’re the Great White Bear, I think.”

Kristoff laughed.

“No, he doesn’t.” He merely shook his head.

“Thanks for not attacking him all the times he’s come across you and Sven hanging out. He’s annoying as can be, but he’ll probably be my family one day, so I guess I appreciate you not… you know eating him. Or me for that matter.”

“I already told you I don’t eat people.” He chuckled.

“What do you eat?”

“Fish, mostly.”

For some reason made Anna laugh. A loud laugh that involved a small snort.

Then a wolf cry from nearby startled her into silence.

Without even thinking about she shrunk into Kristoff’s chest.

“Don’t worry.” His voice rumbled through her. “They know me. They’ll leave us alone.”

“Oh.”

She sat up a bit straighter, realizing that she was basically clinging to him like some frightened little girl. How ridiculous.

Though she found she missed his body heat when she moved away. It was getting colder, so that must be the reason.

“So…” Anna started again. “Are you like a forest spirit?”

“No.” Kristoff laughed. “I’m more like an unofficial protector.”

“Huh.”

Anna thought back to Ryder calling the Great White Bear a ‘king’.

“How long did you know it was me?” He asked her after a moment of silence.

“What?”

“I know you recognized me.” Kristoff told her. “The way you were staring at me the last time I was in Yelena’s gave it away. And you’ve been trying to chase me down for a month now.”

“How did you know that’s what I was doing?”

“It was pretty obvious. Bears have a very good sense of smell, you know.”

“Oh, right.” Anna murmured. “What exactly do I smell like?”

“A person.”

Anna looked up at him and rolled her eyes.

“Cinammon.” He informed her after a moment. “And a lot of the time chocolate.”

“I have a cinnamon lotion. And I do eat a lot of chocolate! That’s really impressive!”

“You haven’t answered my question. When did you know it was me?”

“Oh.” Anna felt her cheeks warm a bit. “Well, I don’t know. I didn’t really know what to think, but… I recognized your eyes. When I saw you that first time, when you were a bear, I recognized your eyes right away. And then my sister said you were the one who brought me back to her house. You as a man, that is. So… I wasn’t sure, but I had a vague suspicion. It seemed so _crazy_.”

“It is a bit crazy.” Kristoff nodded his head.

“I mean, I grew up on fairy tales, but I never _once_ thought something this insane could be _real_!” She rambled on. “And I thought my sister was a bit looney when I first came here, running after some mythical mother of all things. But clearly, I was just scratching the tip of the iceberg.”

“What are you doing here anyway?” Kristoff asked cocking his head a bit to look at her.

“What?”

“You’re from the US. What are you doing here in Norway?”

“Well, my mother grew up here, and my sister moved here for a photography project.”

“I asked why _you_ are here.”

“I-“ Anna faltered. “I don’t really know, if I’m honest.”

She thought he might press the issue, but he didn’t. She got a strange sense that he understood that feeling of not knowing one’s purpose or direction.

“How did you learn English, by the way?” Anna asked turning around to look at him.

“TV.” He shrugged. “I like BBC stuff.”

“You’re messing with me.”

“Nope. Ever watched Father Brown? Great show.”

“That is officially the weirdest thing you’ve told me.”

“That?” Kristoff chuckled.

“Yes. You’re a magical bear who grew up with trolls and you learned English watching BBC murder mystery shows.”

“I learned English when I was a kid. Like most people here. I was already nearly fluent when… well when my parents died. And I read a lot of books in English, too. Not much else to do on winter nights.”

"Oh." Anna nodded. "I'm sorry about your parents, by the way."

"It was a long time ago."

"My parents died when I was a teenager. It doesn't matter how long ago it was, it still hurts." 

"Yeah." Kristoff said and they fell back into silence.

They only plodded along for a few more minutes before Elsa’s house came into view.

Elsa and Honeymaren were standing in the doorway, Elsa with a phone to her ear, frantically gesturing. It was Honeymaren who saw them first and she tugged on Elsa’s shirt and pointed. Elsa gave a happy cry, said something into the phone and then ran out to meet them.

Kristoff dismounted quickly and then helped Anna down. Not that she needed the help, but it was nice anyway.

“Oh, Anna!” Elsa nearly tackled her. “I was so worried! What on earth happened?”

“I-“ Anna thought about which words to choose. “I got a bit turned around.”

That was true. She had been turned around, due to a magical troll valley that spit people out in different places from where you came in.

“And you found her again?” Elsa looked up at Kristoff curiously.

“Ah...”

“Sven did.” Anna said quickly. “He must have recognized my smell or something. I’ve been told it’s very distinct.”

“Yep. I was just bringing him back down the mountain to Ryder.” Kristoff said, patting Sven's neck.

Honeymaren came up behind them.

“Sven!” She scolded the reindeer. “You’ve got to stop wandering off to Kristoff’s herd!”

“Sven’s got a serious case of wander lust.” Anna tried to make a joke, but Elsa merely looked at her with suspicious eyes.

“Well, thank you Kristoff…” Elsa clearly ended the sentence waiting for him to fill in his last name.

“Bjorgman. Kristoff Bjorgman. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Elsa Arendelle.” She held out a hand to shake. “Thank you again for taking care of my sister.”

“It was nothing.”

“Well,” Elsa said after a moment of awkward silence. “I’m going inside. It’s freezing out.”

Elsa grasped Honeymaren’s hand and quickly tugged her back towards the house.

“Be right in!” Anna called to her sister, then turned back to the giant man in front of her. “Thanks, I guess. For taking me home after you basically kidnapped me.”

“Well you’re welcome.” Kristoff chuckled. "Sorry for being so rough with you."

Anna did not want to admit that the phrase shook her to her core but it did. He didn't even mean anything by it, in fact he seemed genuinely apologetic, but still she shivered.

"It's alright." She gulped trying not to let him see how his words made her react. "I was kinda being... a bit crazy."

“Totally understandable... even though you did intrude on a family gathering.”

“Oh my god, I did do that, didn’t I.” She couldn’t help but press her hands to her cheeks in embarrassment. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright.” He smiled.

It wasn’t a smirk, but a real smile. Anna's heart gave a small flutter. She realized she was staring at him. Looking into those big honey eyes again.

Olaf’s yapping brought her back to earth and she peeked over her shoulder to see the dog, Elsa, and Honeymaren giggling at the window. When they saw her looking they quickly drew the curtains.

“Sorry about them.” Anna rolled her eyes.

“It’s fine.”

“Well.” She said, not quite sure how to end a conversation with someone who you had just seen shape-shift by magic. “Your secret is safe with me, Bjorgman. Wait! Isn’t Bjorg the Norwegian word for bear??”

“No, that’s Bjorn.”

“Oh. I was about to totally call you on how ridiculous that was. If your name was literally ‘Bear-man’.”

“It would be quite ridiculous.”

“Okay. Well. I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Probably not.” He said and she looked up at him sharply.

“What? Why?”

“I’ll smell you coming way before you see me.”

“Well I found you this time didn’t I.”

“That was Sven’s fault.”

“I can be very sneaky if I want to be.”

“I doubt it. You’re actually very, very loud.”

“Well challenge accepted.”

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was so dialogue heavy. Even sorrier that I've told myself I'm going to rate this one 'T' because my horny brain wants them to do ALL sorts of things.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished this chapter!! Please enjoy!!!

“You’re telling me you _didn’t_ get a picture of Ahtohallan because you were busy sending out search parties for me?” Anna groaned to her sister in exasperation.

“You’re more important than Ahtohallan, Anna.” Elsa insisted.

“Yeah, but _I_ saw it! Or at least a quick flash of it anyway.

“You did!?” Honeymaren exclaimed in excitement, her dark eyes big and wide.

“Yep. It was pretty cool.” ‘ _And nothing else happened after I saw it. Nothing at all. No naked men. None.’_

“So, you don’t think I’m crazy anymore?” Elsa’s voice was soft.

“No, I guess not.” Anna gave her sister a playful nudge.

‘ _But you sure would think I am if I told you the very hunky dude who dropped me off is a bear sometimes_ ’

“I’m not mad, I should be able to get some good pictures tomorrow night, the weather’s supposed to be ideal. But next time, just tell me when you’re out on a date.” Elsa told her looking especially mischievous.

“I wasn’t on a date!” Anna insisted, and she was annoyed to feel her cheeks warm.

“Oh really? Late night rides through the forest while the Northern Lights are out. Sounds pretty romantic to me.” Honeymaren grinned.

“Did you hear that, Elsa?” Anna looked at her sister. “You’d better take some notes for the next time you two sneak off together.

It was Elsa’s turn to have pink cheeks and Honeymaren hid a laugh behind her hand.

“Besides, it wasn’t like that.” Anna insisted. “I didn’t come to Norway to find a boyfriend. I’m trying to find my own direction. Not a boy.”

“I can firmly say as a lesbian that is unrelated to you, and therefore an impartial party,” Honeymaren piped up, “that Kristoff is very much a man, not a boy, and you should get with that if you can.”

“Honey!” Elsa gave her a look. “Don’t encourage my sister to have… sexual relations with strange mountain men!”

“Well somebody ought to, and it’s not going to be you or me!” Honeymaren retorted. “Really, it would be a shame if nobody could enjoy him. I might not be attracted to him, but I can objectively say that man _is_ well made.”

“Jesus!” Anna’s cheeks were bright red. “What is it with you and your brother trying to get me to sleep with Kristoff? I will be doing no such thing! No matter how ‘well made’ he is.”

Anna’s mind darted to the memory of him fully naked in the steam filled Valley of the Living Rock.

He _was_ well made.

Honeymaren shrugged.

“Your loss.”

*****

“Ryder.” Anna said early the next day. “I need carrot cake. And to borrow Sven.”

“What? Why?”

“Don’t question me. I’m your big sister now.”

“I question Honeymaren all the time. That’s a terrible argument.”

“Don’t question me, because I’m going to give you money.”

“How much cake do you need exactly?”

*****

Anna knew that if she left candied carrot cake out in the open, Kristoff wouldn’t come to it. He knew her ‘MO’, so to speak.

So, she purposely put the cake in a place she thought he might pass and did her best to anticipate where he would go to avoid it. She Let Sven do most of the grunt work, but she felt like she was contributing all the same. 

Then she didn’t put on her lotion or eat any chocolate (which was torturous). It seemed silly, but as a finishing touch she ate a lot of cold-smoked salmon. So much that Elsa asked about it.

“I just didn’t realize how much I liked… fish.” Anna had shrugged in a rather pathetic explanation.

There was a moment where she asked herself why exactly she was so determined to run down the magical bear-man, but she didn’t take the time to answer herself. She was on a mission, and her competitive spirit wasn’t going to let it drop.

She chalked it up to luck, or maybe it was magic, but she found him three hours into her searching.

He didn’t see her at first. She had dismounted from Sven and was sitting on a rock taking a quick sketch (Anna was certain Sven was posing for her), and when she heard a very bearlike grunt, she ducked behind the rock.

Kristoff, upon noticing is reindeer friend, gave a happy chuff and began to lumber over to him. When Sven, who seemed equally pleased to see Kristoff, trotted up to meet him Anna stepped out from her hiding place.

The blond bear stopped short when he spotted her.

She didn’t know bears could look annoyed, but Kristoff certainly fit the bill.

“Ha!” She exclaimed and pointed at him. “You thought I wouldn’t be able to find you! But I did! And I did it in a single day! I win!”

He gave a very unhappy snort.

“I did not cheat either. I just used your strange connection with this reindeer in my favor.”

Kristoff gave a grunt.

“Oh, don’t be such a sore loser.”

Anna walked up to him, and without even thinking patted him on the head.

For a moment she had an out of body experience where she realized that she had just patted a _bear_ on the head. 

Even in bear form Anna could see that Kristoff rolled his eyes.

“So, come on!” She insisted. “Let’s go. I want to use you as a model for my drawings.”

Kristoff shook his big head from side to side, clearly telling her ‘no’.

“Who’s going to stop me from coming with you?” She countered, and he shot her a glare. “You don’t eat people, so you’ve lost your edge.”

If he wanted to, he could easily outrun her. All he would have to do is turn on his big bear haunches and take off in the distance and she would probably be unable to find him again. And bears could run 55 kilometers per hour, she’d googled it… she wasn’t exactly sure of the conversion into miles per hour, but she felt like that was a lot.

He paused for a second. He was thinking about it. She could tell.

She thought he just might take off, but then he turned and gave her a begrudging groan, nodding for her to follow him.

*****

Anna sat with her back against a tree, sketching like mad as she watched Kristoff swipe fish out of a stream. Sven was frolicking through a snow-covered field, chasing little mice that had burrowed underneath the white wintery blanket.

Despite the weather, Anna didn’t notice the cold. She was bundled up tight (and she’d brought a heating pad to sit on which was doing _wonders)_ , and she was more focused than she’d been (maybe ever) _._ Her gloves made holding her pencil difficult and the lines on her sketchpad a bit messy, but she was still getting good material.

Sven made a particularly exuberant leap and nearly collided with a tree.

Anna quickly wrote a note on her sketchpad ‘Why do you have such a weird connection with Sven?’.

It was added to a long list of random questions she’d been collecting over the day that couldn’t be answered by Kristoff grunting or nodding his massive head ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

She had annoyed him a bit initially, there was no doubt about it. But after a while of her skipping alongside him as he shuffled through the forest, she thought he seemed a bit more at ease with her. Or at least when he would respond to her simpler questions, he stopped sounding so disgruntled.

It wasn’t particularly late, but it was already starting to get dark due to the time of year. Anna was hoping that Kristoff was going to let her stick around so she could ask about all the things she’d written down.

As if he were reading her mind, Kristoff gave a brief grunt to Sven telling him to follow and trudged out of the stream towards her.

“Hey!” She smiled brightly. “Do you want to see what I’ve been drawing?”

She held out her sketchbook for him to inspect.

It was a strange thing that she felt like she could read his facial expressions so well, considering he was a bear, but she thought he seemed impressed.

He gave a little noise of approval.

“I’m going to take that as ‘Wow, Anna you are incredible, I’ve never seen such talent before’. To which I will say; Thank you so much, Kristoff! That’s so very kind of you!”

Kristoff rolled his head to the side as if to say ‘Really?’

“So…”Anna said. “It’ll be getting dark soon.”

His massive head nodded.

“I…” For reasons unbeknownst to her, she was nervous. “Do you mind if I… I mean, I’d like to ask you a few things that I thought of today… If that’s okay! I mean I can go home… Actually, I suppose I should, because it’s getting cold out. But Elsa won’t be home until much later, because she’s out on a shoot tonight, so it’s just going to be really lonely and quiet at my house-“

Kristoff turned his giant bear body to the side and gave a bob of his head.

“Wha-“

She realized that he was offering to let her ride on his back.

“Seriously?” She was completely shocked.

He gave a bit of a resenting huff. But clearly, he meant ‘yes’.

“Just a second let me put my art supplies up.” She scrambled to stuff her things in her backpack.

Kristoff lifted his big paw and began twirling it in a circular motion as if to say ‘hurry up’.

“Jeez, chill. I’m coming.”

He gave a bit of an annoyed point at the sky.

“Oh right, you’re going to be nude here shortly, and it’s freezing. Where are we going? The Valley of the Living Rock? I want to get more sketches of that, it’s so beautiful! I’ve already started on a couple drawings of the trolls from memory, but I’d like to just sit down with some colored pencils and-”

The impatient grumble he gave her sounded suspiciously like ‘Anna’.

“Coming!” She hurried up to him and clambered up onto his back.

He gave a dramatic groan and pretended to stumble beneath her weight.

“Oh, shut up. I am _not_ heavy. In fact, I think I’ve lost some weight with all the chocolate I avoided both last night and today. Besides, Sven can carry the _both_ of us. Are you telling me that you’re weaker than your average reindeer?”

He chuffed in laughter, and then took off into the forest at a decent pace, Sven trotting behind. Anna realized they were heading up the mountain.

*****

They made it to his cabin just in time.

Anna dismounted from his back and turned to look out towards the sea and saw a flash of light. It only illuminated the sky for the briefest moment, but it was positively breathtaking.

“Ahtohallan.” Anna whispered, hoping Elsa got the picture.

It wasn’t so much that it sounded painful, but she could hear him changing back into a man. There was a noise of discomfort and he gasped when he was in human form again.

She wanted to turn and look at him, but she realized that would be rude. I mean she _had_ already seen him naked, but that had been an accident. To intentionally watch him shift forms just to get a good look at his ass (she hadn’t really seen that, and she was curious) was hardly appropriate.

Anna gave herself a stern reminder of the reason she’d come to Norway in the first place, and it wasn’t so she could peek at a man’s assets, no matter how magical he was.

“Jesus, it’s cold.” He shuddered, and she heard his bare feet pad into his cabin.

She waited a tick, giving Sven a few affectionate pats before she heard Kristoff from inside the doorway.

“Are you just going to stand out there all night?”

She turned to see that he was dressed. The was a part of her that was disappointed… a very horny part that she told to be quiet. Though she couldn’t complain about the tightness of his sweater.

“I was just waiting for you to get dressed.” Anna pointed out.

“Yes, but you have to be getting cold, and I left the front door wide open for you. It’s winter, and I’m not trying to heat the outdoors.”

Anna was actually getting cold. She hadn’t noticed it when they were coming up the mountain, as she had all the body heat of a giant bear seeping up into her skin (which had been even nicer than her heated blanket). But now she was quite chilly.

“Bye, Sven.” Anna gave the reindeer a quick affectionate kiss against the side of his face. “Don’t let this grumpy pants affect your carefree attitude.”

“Ha, ha.” Kristoff rolled his eyes.

“So, were you impressed that I found you so quickly?” Anna said hopping up his step and into his home. "It was almost like magic."

The fact that she was _alone_ in his cabin with him was something that she tried not to think too awfully hard about.

“Yes it was.” He closed the door behind her. “And you _did_ cheat. You used Sven.”

“But you didn’t smell me either.” Anna pointed out.

“I have some packets of hot cocoa around here somewhere if you’d like to break your chocolate fast.”

“Yes, please!” Anna said maybe a bit too quickly.

Kristoff shook his head gently and chuckled.

Anna took off her coat, and other additional layers (his heater was already warming up the room remarkably well) and sat at his kitchen table as he busied himself with a tea kettle and mugs.

“So,” Anna said pulling out her sketchbook and laid it out on the table to peruse her questions. “Why are you friends with Sven?”

“He was my reindeer.”

“He was part of the wild herd up here, you mean?” Anna looked at him.

“No.” Kristoff shook his head. “He was mine. Before I turned into a bear.”

“Oh.” Anna said softly.

“Next question?” Kristoff moved her forward, not looking at her as he set things out.

“Oh… Um… Do you pay for this place with money you get on economic grants from reindeer herding?”

Kristoff raised his eyebrows and turned to give her a look.

“Would you like a look at tax statements from last year as well?”

“I guess that was a bit forward.” Anna chewed her lip and scrunched up her face in what she hoped was an apologetic face.

“You Americans and your money.” He shook his head and laughed again. “In answer to your question, yes. My bills are fairly low due to the fact that I’m a bear that lives out of doors most of the time.”

“When you’re a bear do you still think the same thoughts you do when you’re a man, or is there a difference? Like are you slightly more ‘bear-ish’?”

“I’m the same.” Kristoff gave a small smirk.

“What was it like growing up with trolls?”

“Fine. Fun, I guess. They’re a bit overbearing, but they mean well.”

“Did you just use the word 'over _bear_ ing' on purpose."

"No."

"Hmm. Sure. How many troll brothers and sisters do you have?”

“Um, lots? They’re kind of all my siblings in a way… Their familial units work differently than humans… if that makes sense.”

“Not really, but next question. Do you sleep?”

“Of course, I sleep.” Kristoff laughed pulling out packets of cocoa and pouring them into empty mugs as his electric kettle warmed.

“But bears hibernate. You don’t.”

“Nosy and a wildlife expert I see.”

“I watch a lot of documentaries.” Anna cocked an eyebrow.

“I sleep during the first part of the day, when I’m a bear. I don’t feel tired when I’m a man.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“Hm. Only three years older than me. And do you age at a normal rate? Or do you only age when you’re a man?”

“I age at a normal rate.” He laughed.

“Okay, interesting.” Anna turned a page. “Oh! I just thought of this one when we were coming inside. Does it hurt when you shift forms?”

“Not exactly. It’s… unpleasant, I guess. But not painful.

“Do you ever wish you could stop being a bear?”

“Are you writing a book or something?” Kristoff looked at her a bit more closely.

“No, I just… I just wondered these things. And usually I just say whatever I’m thinking but, you couldn’t answer me today, so I thought I’d ask you when you were a man again.”

Kristoff remained quiet for a moment.

“Yes. Sometimes I think it might be nice to not have to shift into a bear anymore.”

“Bulda, the troll… your adopted mom said there was a way to break the enchantment…” Anna trailed off, remembering that it had been a bit of a touchy subject the last time she was here.

“Yes, but I’m not going to talk about it with you.” He said, pulling the electric kettle that had just begun to boil out and pouring the water over two mugs of cocoa mix.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not.” His voice wasn’t harsh, but it was firm, then he pulled a can out of his fridge. “Whipped cream?”

“Yes, please.” She nodded, trying not to be put out about the way he refused to answer her.

He gave her a liberal portion, and then without asking her he sprinkled a quick dash of cinnamon on top. She tilted her head to the side slightly and looked up at him.

“What if I don’t like cinnamon?” She raised her eyebrows a bit.

The faintest tinge of a blush tinged his cheeks.

“Sorry, I didn’t think about it. I just...” He shrugged and handed her the mug. “I like the way it smells.”

“I do like cinnamon.” Anna chuckled. “I just wanted to point out that there was a possibility I didn’t like the taste of it, even if I have a scented lotion.”

Their fingers brushed slightly as she took the cup he offered her.

Luckily, she didn’t do anything stupid, like slosh burning liquid onto either of their hands, but the contact surprised her.

For all the throwing over shoulders, and sitting remarkably close whilst on the back of a reindeer, it was the first time their skin had touched.

She had always thought that feeling ‘sparks’ was romantic, and a sign of true love. She’d talked herself into feeling them before…

This was something else. It wasn’t sparks, exactly. When their fingers brushed it felt like someone had struck a match inside her, and the heat of it was going to melt her from the inside out.

“Thanks.” She said quickly and ducked her eyes down so she couldn’t see what his face looked like and blew on her mug.

“Do you have any more questions for me?”

“Yes! Can we go to the Valley of the Living Rock again tonight?”

“Unfortunately, no.” He shook his head. “The entrance only shows itself before dark.”

“Are you serious?” Anna groaned. “I was dying to get some sketches!”

“Well I figured clothes for me would be a priority.” Kristoff tilted his head at her, looking faintly amused. “But why do you want to go back so badly?”

“I just… I just wanted to! They’re trolls! I bet nobody’s ever seen trolls!”

“Well I have.”

“Besides you. You’re weird and you don’t count.”

“You’re a very rude guest, you know.” Kristoff chuckled, leaning forward to examine the pages of art on his table. “What are you going to do with these drawings?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “They’re just fun.”

“You are actually very good.”

“You sound so surprised.” Anna raised an eyebrow. “I’m good at everything.”

“I bet.”

Kristoff looked up at her across the table from his position leaned over her work.

Anna had to suck in a quick breath, because his eyes bored into her so fast it was frightening.

They were _all alone up here_.

“Can I ask you a few questions?” He voiced after a moment of unbroken eye contact.

“Sure.”

“Why are you here? I mean, I know I asked you this already, and you said you didn’t really know… but what exactly caused you to make the decision to come to Norway?”

“I… broke up with my fiancé.” Anna told him.

“Oh.” The answer seemed to throw him. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m better off without him.” She shrugged, and when he didn’t say anything else, she felt the need to fill the silence. “He was… a real bastard, if I’m going to be frank. I gave up everything for him only to find out that he had a bit on the side.”

“Yikes.” He said and then scowled. “I’m really sorry, Anna.”

“It’s fine. I should count my blessings really. I found out before we sent out any invitations. Mostly because he’d been pushing the date back for nearly three years…. And it could have been worse. We could have been married with children.”

She could hear the pain in her own voice and cleared her throat.

“Anyway! I ended it and then I came here to try and figure out what to do with my life.”

“So… are you staying here indefinitely?” Kristoff seemed to be picking his words carefully.

“I don’t really know the answer to that either.” Anna shrugged. “Not for any cryptic or mystical reasons, like when you dodge my questions. I just… I just have no direction right now.”

“Well, they say to follow your passions. That will give you direction.”

Anna looked at him carefully.

“What are your passions?”

She hadn’t meant for her voice to sound so breathy… but it had been.

Kristoff’s eyes flicked up to hers again and he held her gaze, taking a sip of his hot chocolate without breaking the eye-contact.

It felt like maybe another match had been lit.

“Reindeer.” He finally replied, letting the moment pass.

“Reindeer?”

“Yep. That and ice. Ice harvesting is fun."

Anna laughed and took a sip of her cocoa.

“You’ve got…” Kristoff gestured to her top lip.

“Hmm?” Anna said. “Oh? Whipped cream?”

She stuck her tongue out and licked it off.

The way Kristoff watched was not lost on her.

Another match.

“So!” Anna said abruptly realizing that she really needed to change the subject. “Anymore questions for me?”

She needed to calm herself down. She’d been single all of two months. She needed to not be thinking or feeling things at all. She needed to focus on herself. She needed to discover her own dreams and follow her own passions, just like Kristoff had said.

She wanted to hop into his lap.

“Yes.” Kristoff said, and stood up. “Are you hungry?”

“Starved actually. My lunch was a really long time ago.”

“Yes, and I’m sure all that fish you’ve been eating doesn’t really stick very well, does it?”

“So, you _could_ smell all that smoked salmon!” Anna laughed. “I wondered! Oh! I’ve got a good question! When you eat as a bear does it transfer to your human stomach and vice versa?”

“What?” Kristoff laughed.

“You heard me! The raw fish you were eating at the river earlier! Is that in your stomach right now?”

“No.” Kristoff rolled his eyes. “Now come on and get your coat. We’ll go down to town and then I’ll drop you back off at your sisters.”

“Oh… Do you not have anything here?”

“Nothing but the makings for stew, and that takes a long time. Why?”

“I just… can we not go to Yelena’s?”

“Tired of the food?”

“No… It’s just that my sister will talk.”

“Oh,” Kristoff chuckled. “Well Oaken’s has great lutefisk?”

“Yuck!” Anna gave an overly dramatic shudder.

“Then we’ll find something else.” He laughed. “Come on.”

*****

“So how many more nights are you going to shift this month?” Anna asked him curiously as she dove into her dinner.

“Just one more.” He said. “Then I won’t change again until the few days around the solstice.”

“Oh! I forgot that the winter solstice is coming up!” Anna said in excitement. “Is that a special night for you. Like are there magical things that happen, or anything like that?”

“Not really.” He shrugged, but she got the idea that he wasn’t telling the whole truth.

“Would you take me to see the trolls tomorrow then?” She asked, hopeful. “I would really love it if I could draw them.”

“What makes you think I’m going to let you find me again?” He lifted an eyebrow. “I know your tricks now.”

“Oh please,” Anna scoffed, “it’s not like you have better things to do.”

“Sure, I do. I’ve got to catch up on Father Brown.”

“Really?” Anna gave him a look. “I’m way more fun, though.”

“Hmm.”

Rather than continue their humored banter, he took on a very thoughtful look. He seemed almost at war with himself, chewing on the inside of his lip.

It made Anna straighten, curious.

“Yes,” He gave her what looked like a reluctant nod. “I’ll take you to see them.”

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whhhyyy is this so long??? (that's what she said)  
> For real, I'm majorly struggling with keeping this T rating. The logical side of my brain says "You don't need to write sex scenes in this one." And the horny part of my brain says "MAKE THEM F**K!"  
> So.... I might bump up the rating. We shall see. 
> 
> also p.s. it is totally some sort of weird magic that keeps bringing Anna across Kristoff's path


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is more Bearstoff stuffs! Hope you all enjoy!! <3

“Elsa, this is gorgeous.” Anna sighed.

She was looking at a picture blown up on Elsa’s computer.

“I almost missed it.” Elsa sighed, her fingers tracing across the screen. “I was so enraptured, and I almost missed the shot again.”

“What are you going to call it?” Anna asked.

“I’m not sure. I thought I liked the name “Ahtohallan Effect”. But I’m not sure if that holds enough _weight_ , you know? Like I need a name that is more meaningful for something this beautiful.”

“Well, you’ll think of something.” Anna quickly gave her a hug. “Are you going out again tonight?”

“Yes, I’d love to get a couple more shots. The sky changes so quickly. I need to set up my tri-pod and get a rapid-fire, because the colors are just _incredible_. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Well, it might snow, so be careful.” Anna said as she put on her hiking boots.

“Where are you going?” Elsa raised an eyebrow, turning in her desk hair and leaning her arm against the back. “Late night rendezvous with the mountain man?”

“If you must know, I have some phenomena of my own I’m trying to capture.” Anna did her best to keep her face impassive. “It just takes me a little bit more time because I have to draw them out. So, I might be out all night.”

“Kristoff’s taking you though, isn’t he?”

“Yes.” Anna didn’t look up at her sister as she did her laces.

“Okay. Be safe.”

“I hope you are not alluding to anything sexual.” Anna scowled.

“Nope.” Elsa smirked. “I would have said ‘use protection’. I find it interesting that that’s where your mind went, though.”

“Oh, shut up.” Anna huffed.

*****

Anna had slept for a large portion of the day hoping she would be up for most of the night. She’d eaten a big dinner, but still stashed snacks in her bag (she didn’t exactly know what trolls ate, so she brought a wide array of things in case she needed to share). Her fingers were crossed that this would be a long outing.

A sketch pad and a set of colored pencils were also weighing down her bag and it bounced heavily against her back as she hurried to their agreed meeting place; the clearing where she had first caught Sven and Kristoff together. It was already starting to flurry down big white flakes and they stuck on her eyelashes.

A big blond bear was waiting for her, with a rucksack in his teeth. Sven wasn’t with him.

She broke out into a big grin and waved at him. He lifted a big paw to wave casually back.

“What’s this?” Anna asked when she came close enough.

She took the bag from his mouth and opened it to find clothes.

“Oh, smart.” She gave an embarrassed laugh.

She thought she heard him give one of his bear-laughs, then he gave a nod to follow him around the bend.

The entrance to the Valley of the Living Rock was clearly visible again.

“Where’s Sven?” Anna asked and Kristoff gave a small grunt. “Oh right. I’ll wait until you’ve shifted. Then I’ll ask that question.”

Kristoff gave another chuff.

“Oh! I was going to ask! Does your hair grow at a normal rate? Because, like bears don’t get haircuts, so does the human hair on your head grow while you’re a bear? Or does it only grow when you’re a man? Like do you have to shave your face regularly, or you get a beard? Or do you only have to do that like once a year? Oh my gosh, only shaving once a year sounds so nice. I mean, I don’t shave my face, but like other areas.”

Kristoff’s grumble seemed to say; ‘I still can’t talk, remember’.

“Right! Sorry! I know you can’t answer yet, but I just figured I would ask those things right away, that way I didn’t forget them.”

The shifting of the rock behind them as they came into the valley was still a bit of a marvel and Anna turned to watch it. She gave an impressed whistle.

“That is really cool.” She sighed.

Kristoff picked up his pace ever so slightly, as they were coming into the main part of the valley. The round boulders covering the ground began to roll after them, keeping pace, and making loud cracking noises when they crashed into one another.

Suddenly Kristoff dropped the parcel in his mouth stood on his haunches and gave a small groan.

It was considerably muted, due to the low clouds in the sky, but there was still a flash of light as Ahtohallan ‘sang’. Then blond fur shuddered and shifted to the flesh of a man.

She didn’t get the chance to stare, because the trolls began to burst forward.

“Kristoff! You brought your girlfriend back!” One of them exclaimed and they all began clamoring over one another about how excited they were.

“Oh, let me look at you again!” Bulda (at least Anna was fairly certain it was Bulda, it wasn’t that all the trolls looked the same, but their differences weren’t easy to spot), rolled up in front of her blocking her view of Kristoff’s butt.

“It’s nice to see you again.” Anna smiled, hoping her face wasn't too flushed.

“You’re even lovelier than I remember.”

“You saw her two days ago, Ma.” Kristoff’s voice stood out amongst the troll’s chatter.

Anna looked up to see he’d put on a pair of pants. He was still shirtless though, and that was nice.

“So, have you decided to break Kristoff’s enchantment?” Bulda turned to Anna expectantly.

“Uh-“

“Ma!” Kristoff shouted sounding a bit panicked. “We will not be talking about enchantments under any circumstances, do you hear me?”

“But she looks perfectly able to-“

“Ma.” Kristoff rushed over, struggling to get his sweater over his head at the same time, leaving his chest and stomach exposed. “I’m serious. Do. Not. Bring it up. Okay?”

“Well, there’s no need to be so defensive, dearie.” Bulda threw up her hands, looking a bit put out.

“Why can’t I kno-“ Anna started to ask.

“Nope!” Kristoff held out his hand. “We will not be discussing it now. Or ever.”

“Kristoff.” Bulda looked at him with disapproving eyes. “You’re being unreasonable.”

“Actually, I'd say I’m being very fair.” Kristoff said gently steering Anna away from his adopted mother. “Now. Get comfortable. Start drawing.”

“Sheesh. You don’t need to be so pushy.”

“I’m just starting to think this was a very bad idea.” He had a deep scowl on his face.

“You haven’t answered my questions yet, by the way.” Anna turned to face him abruptly.

He seemed a bit startled by her closeness and quickly removed his hand from her back.

“Which questions?”

“Where is Sven, and how fast does your hair grow?”

“Oh.” Kristoff laughed. “There’s a vet coming to Ryder’s to do checkups tomorrow morning, so I made Sven stay there. And my hair grows… normally? I mean I cut it a couple times a year, and every month when I start shifting, I have to shave a beard. And I usually shave every morning before I turn back into a bear.”

Anna looked closely at his cheek and saw stubble beginning to form there.

“Okay.”

“Any more ridiculous questions?”

“Not yet.” Anna then turned back to all the trolls who were watching them with what could only be described as ‘smug’ looks on their faces. “So! I am here in the hopes that I can sketch you all.”

“You want to draw us?” Bulda’s voice piped up above the others. “Whatever for?”

“I-“ She faltered. “I don’t know. For fun!”

“Oh, oh, oh! Draw me first! I just grew my very first mushroom!” A little one at the front exclaimed.

“I just earned my fire crystal! Draw me first!”

“Whoaw, whoaw, everybody. Slow down.” Kristoff chuckled. “Let Anna get comfortable first.”

Anna found a place to set down her things and stripped off her jacket and her gloves. It was considerably warmer in the Valley of the Living Rock and she knew she was going to start sweating if she wore them for much longer.

“Okay!” Anna found a position to sit with her sketchpad against her knees. “Who’s first!”

“Me! Me! Me! Me!”

*****

After several hours of sketching little rounded figures, she was starting to see the differences in each of the troll’s faces.

She also noticed the way their expressions would change to complete joy any time Kristoff interacted with them.

He set to tossing the little ones up in the air and playing games of tag with them as Anna was sketching some of the others.

She kept drawing quick figures of Kristoff as he interacted with them, hoping to flesh them out later. She’d been practicing with landscapes, and then bears, reindeer (and now trolls) so much that she wasn’t actually sure she would be able to give his form justice.

Or his face.

“How’s it coming?” Kristoff came to sit by her, moving her backpack. “Whoaw. What is in this bag?”

“Snacks!” Anna said. “I brought lots in case I needed to share.”

“You were carrying this?”

“Mhmm.” She didn’t look over at him, as she quickly grabbed a red colored pencil to add crystal to one of the rough figures she’d scribbled.

“Wow. You’re stronger than you look.”

“Says the man who was just casually tossing boulders up in the air.” Anna raised a joking eyebrow and looked at him.

He was sitting close. Not too close. But close enough that she could feel his body heat after he’d been so active. He’d pulled his knees up and crossed his arms on top of them in a relaxed position.

Why was that so sexy? He was merely sitting down, what about that was so hot? Was it because he looked so comfortable in such a strange and magical place? Or was it because he was just unbelievably good looking? 

“Yeah, I’m going to be feeling that in my back tomorrow.” He groaned. “I sound like an old man.”

“Can you feel the pain you experienced as a man when you’re a bear?” Anna looked at him curiously.

“Sort of. It’s like a memory of pain.” Kristoff’s brows came together slightly as he tried to explain it. “Because I’m still the same… I just have a different form.”

“Hmm.” Anna hummed, and she set down one of her pencils. “So, do you want something to eat?”

“Sure. What all did you bring?” He shifted her bag in front of his feet.

“Everything.”

“Oh! Look!” One of the little trolls (Anna was fairly certain this one was named Mundi?) exclaimed. “Snacks!”

“Trolls are very fond of human food.” Kristoff laughed. “You’re going to be their favorite forever, now.”

“Oh! Does that mean I’ll have good fortune or something?” Anna smiled. “Because frankly, I could use it.”

“Well you’ll just have to wait and see.” Kristoff grinned.

Anna grabbed a cheese stick and a small bar of chocolate for herself, and then helped Kristoff pass out her varying goodies.

“Oh,” Bulda (Anna could tell it was her right-away, now) sighed “this is delicious, thank you Anna. We don’t get treated to fancy food very often. It’s been a year since Kristoff made us any of his infamous Flemmy stew.”

“Flemmy stew?” Anna chuckled.

“It’s not that good.” Kristoff whispered to her. “But trolls are easily pleased.”

“What is a ‘flemmy’?” Anna laughed. “Because that doesn’t sound… appetizing.”

“It’s short for Flemmingrad. It’s an ancient troll legend. I make it in the winter, usually after Jule and Christmas time, to celebrate.”

“Kristoff is quite the cook.” Bulda piped up. “And I’ve been told that in the human world that makes him great husband material.”

“Ma.” Kristoff growled in warning.

“I’m just saying!” Bulda shrugged.

“Well,” Anna laughed. “I’m a horrible cook. I can bake though. Next time I come would you like me to bring some of my infamous mint-chip cookies?”

“Yes, please!” Bulda gave a wide smile.

“Whoaw, whoaw. What next time?” Kristoff said, his eyes a little panicked.

“Next time I come.” Anna stated matter-of-factly.

“Who said I’d bring you back?”

“Well, you said the troll’s valley only opens to those who know the trolls. Well I know them now. So, it should open for me, right?”

“I thought you just needed to get some sketches.” Kristoff was scowling slightly, though Anna couldn’t imagine why.

“Yes. But art takes time.” Anna then turned to Bulda. “Oh I was going to ask! Why exactly did the Valley of the Living Rock open to me in the first place? When I first fell in here, I didn’t know you all. Nor did I have any idea that trolls were real.”

“Sometimes the Valley opens itself to those in need. That’s how we first found Kristoff and Sven. They were freezing to death and the Valley opened for them.”

“Oh.” Anna felt a strange pang in her heart at the thought of a young Kristoff and Sven shivering.

“But! Other times it opens because fate has decided-“

“Ma.” Kristoff said firmly again. “Not the time.”

“Oh Kristoff,” She huffed, “just let me tell her! The solstice is next month!”

“No.” He insisted, his voice nearly a shout.

“Tell me what?” Anna’s curiosity was raising its head in full force. “What about the solstice?”

“It’s nothing.” Kristoff’s voice was abrupt.

“You know the more you make a big deal about not telling me, the more I’ll want to know.” Anna told him.

“Well nobody is telling you. So, you’re just going to have to let that cat die.”

“Cat?” Anna sent him a very confused look.

“Yeah. Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back, remember?”

“Oooh. Wait! Are you saying that you’re never going to tell me?”

“Exactly.”

***** 

When they left the Valley of the Living Rock, it was nearly dawn and snowing hard. Not so hard that they couldn’t see, but in a very determined way that let them know it would not be letting up.

Kristoff had made the Valley open at the very edge of the forest by her sister’s house.

Anna could see that the lights were all on, and she wondered if Elsa was worried. She supposed she should have shot her a text, but in these snowstorms her phone never worked. In fact, she had a strange feeling that her phone wouldn't function at all when she was with the trolls. She had been so preoccupied she hadn't even thought to look.

“Thanks for taking me.” Anna pulled her gloves on tighter. “I’ll see you again tomorrow night.”

“I won’t be shifting tomorrow night.”

“I know. I’m not scared of you being a bear. But if you’re not going to come with me, I’ll just go myself.”

“You don’t even know how to call the Valley to open.” Kristoff rolled his eyes looking slightly annoyed.

He hadn’t brought a coat, and Anna could see he hunched his shoulders up against the cold and had his hands jammed in his pockets.

“Well then I guess I’ll just be wandering around in a snowstorm looking for it then.”

“Anna.” Kristoff grumbled.

Her name on his lips made another one of those matches light inside her, and she sucked in a quick breath.

“Do not do that.” He said firmly.

“Okay. Then just meet me.” She shrugged.

“That’s… that’s really not a good idea.”

“Why not?” Anna insisted.

“I- I can’t…. I can’t explain it Anna. I’m just not going to, okay?”

“Kristoff, there’s no need to be so damn cryptic.” She scowled. “I already know you’re a shape-shifting bear. What could possibly worse than that?”

“I- listen, the sun is about to rise, and I’m about to shift back.” He said quickly, a frantic edge to his voice. “But I can’t burden you with… with…”

He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

“With what, Kristoff?” Anna insisted, and as she went to reach out and touch his arm.

He pulled away from her though, and to her surprise began to peel his sweater off over his head.

“Kristoff! What are you doing?”

“I’ll meet you right here tomorrow night before the sun sets. Do not go wandering off by yourself.” He said quickly undoing the fly of his pants and jerking them down.

He didn’t get his underwear off before he gave a frustrated grunt.

Then he was a bear again, with the tattered remains of his boxers blowing away in the wind and snow.

He gave her one last look before turning on his haunches and taking off up the mountain.

“Anna!” Elsa’s voice came to her ears. “Is that you?”

Anna quickly picked up the sweater and jeans that were still intact and stuffed them into her backpack.

“Yes! I’m coming!” She jogged to her sister’s house.

“What was that big thing!?” Elsa’s face especially white as she stared carefully at the tree line.

“What big thing?” Anna tried playing dumb.

“I couldn’t see I clearly because of the snow, but I saw something at the edge of the woods.”

“Oh, that was just Kristoff dropping me off. He rode off on Sven. It probably looked funny in the early morning light.”

“…Yeah.” Elsa said, ushering her inside and shutting the door quickly behind her, locking it firmly.

“Did you stay up all night?” Anna asked as she sighed into the heat of her sister’s home.

“No, I just got up a little bit ago, but I didn’t sleep very well. I won’t lie, I was concerned about you. I know you said you’d be out all night, but it _was_ snowing pretty hard.”

“Don’t worry. If I’m with Kristoff, I’m safe.” Anna said taking off her gloves and her coat. “Did you get any good pictures though?”

“No, the clouds were too low. I’ve got a good feeling about next month, though.”

“Yeah.” Anna said thoughtfully as she pulled off her gloves. “I’ve got a feeling that the winter solstice is an important date.”

“Me too!” Elsa said, surprise covering her features. “What makes you think that?”

“Oh… I don’t know.” She then reached down to pat Olaf, whose little nose was glued to her shoes. “What’s up there, buddy? Smell something?”

Olaf yapped excitedly and his little tail wiggled furiously.

“Wherever you were, Olaf certainly is interested. Can’t say I’m not either.” Elsa raised a slight eyebrow.

“Um…” Anna thought for a moment. “Kristoff was just showing me this really unique… place. It’s got a lot of history. Lots of… ancestry stuff tied to it. It’s given me an idea for something.”

“What sort of something?”

“I don’t know. Maybe like a kids story book.”

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry about the Flemmy Stew jokes. I know OFA is one of the least enjoyed Frozen features... but I appreciate the Ballad of Flemmingrad… as one user said - it walked so LITW could run.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little bit of a bounce around on what happens whilst Kristoff spends the month as a bear. 
> 
> *adds a dash of feelings to go with the sexual tension*
> 
> Enjoy!!!!

“Anna?” Elsa’s voice woke her a little after noon.

“Hmm?” Anna mumbled wiping her eyes and pulling strands of hair out of her mouth. “What?”

“I was throwing the stuff you put in the wash this morning into the dryer…”

Anna sat up.

“What are these?” Elsa asked holding out the pair of Kristoff’s pants Anna had snatched up earlier that morning.

“Oh… Um…” Anna fumbled for an explanation. “It got really cold and Kristoff gave me an extra layer.”

“He gave you his pants to wear?” Elsa repeated in disbelief.

“Mhmm.”

“You weren’t wearing them when you got home.”

“I’d already taken them off. I meant to give them back… I just forgot I put them in my bag.”

“He gave you these to wear?” Elsa held them up to her own waist. “These.”

Elsa was just a few inches taller than Anna, but they wore the same pant size (Anna had found that to be a very lucky thing when she wanted to freshen up her wardrobe). Kristoff’s pants came up nearly to Elsa’s ribs and were notably wider than her thin frame.

“Yep. I just belted them… and you know… rolled them up.”

“Then where’s the belt?” Elsa asked.

“Um. I-I don’t know. Must have lost it when I took them off.”

“You know, if you are sleeping with him you could just tell me.” Elsa rolled her eyes.

“I’m not!” Anna insisted, jumping up from her bed. “Why would I have his pants if I did?”

“Well… I don’t know.” Elsa noted.

“That would be a super weird thing to do! Keep a man’s pants after I slept with him. I don’t know how you do things... Do you keep Honeymaren’s pants every time you-“

“Fine!” Elsa said blushing brightly. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“Wait, _do_ you keep Honeymaren’s pants?’

“No!” Elsa insisted not liking that the attention was on her, she flipped the conversation back on Anna. “But, I know you’re keeping some sort of secret, and that’s fine. I just want you to know that you _can_ tell me.”

Anna didn’t say anything for a moment, but she took Kristoff’s pants from her sister’s hands.

“Thank you, Elsa.” She said softly. “These probably need to be hung anyway. Wouldn’t want them to shrink.”

“No. He’s certainly a big man… Though I’m sure you know all about that.”

“Elsa!” Anna’s eyes were wide. “What is _that_ supposed to mean?”

“I’m a lesbian, so I know little about men, but I’ve heard one of the things that makes sex with a male pleasurable is the general size of his-”

“Jesus!” Anna yelped. “Stop! Just stop right now! I already said I haven’t slept with him!”

***** 

It was snowing softly still by the time the day ended.

Anna hurried to the edge of the woods where Kristoff had shifted the night before. She was loaded down once again with art supplies, cookies she’d spent most of the afternoon baking, and she clutched Kristoff’s clothes to her chest.

“Kristoff?” She called, but the wind whipped the words away from her.

It was very cold. Much colder than she’d been expecting. She shivered harshly against the bitter breeze blowing directly from the arctic circle.

At first, she didn’t think he had come, and for some reason she felt gutted.

He had told her he would meet her here…

Then there was a little grunt just beyond the tree line, and she could see brown eyes watching her.

For some reason she felt a bit warmer when she saw them. Maybe it was all those matches still burning inside her chest.

“Hi!” She grinned coming up to him. “I brought you your clothes back.”

He snuffed at them for a moment.

“Oh, I washed your jeans. There was some mud on them, so I just figured… while I was washing my clothes I might as well throw yours in. I mean, I guess I should have washed the sweater, too, but really it didn’t smell all that bad, and you don’t want to over wash sweaters. They’re easy to shrink.”

Kristoff sat back on his haunches and held out his paws with a look on his face that clearly said ‘how am I supposed to carry that?’

“Oh right. Duh. I guess I’ll hang on to them for now.”

She tucked them under her arm, and he gave a soft chuff of laughter. He then turned and gestured with his head for her to follow.

The entrance to the Valley of the Living Rock appeared before them, nestled in between two very large pine trees.

“You’re going to have to tell me how to do that.” Anna said in awe.

Kristoff grumbled something that sounded like it might be consent and then walked side by side with her into the valley.

“Look!” The trolls shouted happily upon seeing them. “It’s Anna!”

“Did you bring the cookies?” Bulda asked in excitement.

Anna pulled the giant Tupperware out of her backpack for them to inspect.

“Yep!”

“Horray!”

*****

After nearly a week and half of nights with the trolls, Anna finally found herself alone with Bulda for a moment.

“Why won’t Kristoff let you tell me about his enchantment?” She whispered quickly.

Any time Bulda had tried to say something over the past few days Kristoff would roar and grumble, clearly indicating it was not a topic to be discussed.

“Well, I can’t say for sure, but I would assume he’s afraid. People make bad choices when they’re mad, or scared, or stressed.”

“But why is he afraid?” Anna was confused.

“I would tell you, gladly. But Kristoff has made his stance very clear. Besides, it’s his secret to tell anyway.”

“Hmm. Thank you, Bulda.” Anna nodded and looked over to where Kristoff was busy rolling on his back while several little trolls jumped on top of him, laughing.

He glanced up and caught her eye.

She didn't know bears could smile, but she swore he did.

*****

“You know what’s really weird?” Ryder said one day as Anna had stopped by Yelena’s for some candied carrot cake.

Now that Kristoff wasn’t actively avoiding her, she had a feeling that he might accept a piece or two.

“What’s weird?”

“I haven’t seen the Great White Bear at all recently.”

“Oh really?” Anna said, trying her best to keep her face as impassive as possible.

“No… I usually see him every couple of weeks wandering about. Or I at least see some footprints or something. But lately. Nothing.”

“Maybe he just hasn’t been in his usual places?” Anna suggested, taking the carrot cake Ryder offered.

“Maybe he found himself a lady friend.” Ryder grinned happily. “A Mrs. Great White Bear so to speak.”

“I doubt that.” Anna rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t seem like the type of bear to have a lady friend.”

“Hey, all men need a special friend, regardless of species. Nobody wants to be alone. That’s literally in the Bible. Look it up.”

“Oh, you’re going to quote me some scripture, are you?” Anna was faintly amused.

“I am very well educated, I will have you know.”

“Hmm.”

*****

“Kristoff!” Anna giggled as the bear nose nuzzled her hand. “Stop! You’ve had your fair share.”

He gave a very impatient huff and went to snuffling around her backpack, which was still strapped onto her back. He began adamantly bobbing his head beneath the bag, causing it to bounce up and down on her back.

In doing this he accidentally caught the hem of her coat and pulled it up faster than he could stop himself for the briefest second his cold nose touched her bare skin.

“Hey!” She yelped.

She tried desperately not to remember that he was still Kristoff, and very much in the same state of mind as a man. Because he’d basically just dragged his nose and lips against her back.

“Your nose is freezing!” She tried to play it off as if she was unbothered. “You have had enough carrot cake!”

He gave a very adamant grunt, though if she weren’t mistaken, she thought she recognized an embarrassed look on his fuzzy features.

“Fine! You can have one more piece, but you’re going to have to tell Sven why there’s so little left!”

Then she most certainly gave no thought to what it might feel like if his _real_ nose, nice and warm, and his _real_ lips possibly just slightly chapped were to run along her spine. She never thought about that once.

*****

“Well hello, Anna.” Mattias said as she came bouncing into Yelena’s pub one afternoon.

“Hello!” She replied with a smile.

“You certainly seem happy.”

“I… am.” Anna said in surprise.

“Any particular reason?” Mattias asked.

“Must be the mountain air.”

Yelena was standing there, watching her closely.

“What?” Anna asked, starting to feel self-conscious. “Is there something on my face?”

Yelena, still without speaking, came around the bar and grasped Anna’s hands tightly in her own, much like she had the day they first met.

Anna was too surprised to look away and stared into her dark eyes.

“You…” Yelena said slowly, “look like you’ve been kissed by a troll.”

“What?” Anna blanched.

“It’s just a saying, meaning that you’ve been in touch with something magical.” Yelena let her hands drop quickly.

“Oh… Um. Well I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve had a perfectly normal day.”

“I can tell you exactly what she’s been in _touch_ with.” Ryder had come out from the kitchen and was looking particularly smug. “Honeymaren let slip that you’ve been meeting up with Kristoff on a regular basis now.”

“Be quiet, you.” Anna scowled, but she didn’t have the heart to actually be angry at him.

She was genuinely happy for the first time in... well forever.

*****

Anna looked over her sketches carefully.

She’d filled an entire book already, and she felt herself glow a little bit in pride. Not in a selfish way, but in a sense that made her feel like she was finally doing something that she enjoyed. Something that she loved.

Something that was a passion, just like Kristoff had said. Something she could turn into a direction for her life.

Her fingers rested on one particular sketch.

It was Kristoff’s face. His real face. She didn’t feel that she’d quite got the line of his brow right, as she had done it from memory, but it was still a fairly accurate likeness.

She traced along the pencil lines of his jaw.

“Hey!” Elsa said as she came bounding into the house with Honeymaren in tow, and Anna slammed the book shut quickly. “Whatcha doing?”

“Nothing!”

******

“Anna you cannot possibly be serious about going out tonight.” Elsa stamped her foot adamantly. “It is a literal blizzard.”

“I seem to recall you doing something similar when I first moved here.” Anna reminded her.

“Yes, and that was for _work_ and it was hardly what one could consider a real blizzard _._ Besides, the cold doesn’t really bother me the same way it does you.”

“That’s… true.” Anna sighed.

“God only knows what you and Kristoff are up to, as you have made it abundantly clear that you’re not sleeping together, but this is one of the worst storms we’ve had in years. You absolutely cannot go out in it.”

“I know.” Anna worried her lip between her teeth. “I’ll be right back, I promise. I won’t even go out of sight of the house.”

“You will lose sight of the house before you even step off the porch!” Elsa insisted. “There’s no way Kristoff is out there tonight. He would have had the sense to stay home! Can you not just call him on a landline? Those haven't gone down yet.”

“No, he doesn’t have a phone…” She wanted to explain to her that Kristoff was a bear with very thick fur, but she was still worried about him freezing to death out there.

She had promised Kristoff that she would keep it a secret though.

“Just…” Anna was thinking. “Give me that heavy duty laser pointer you have. I won’t even leave the porch. It will make me feel better.”

“Okay, fine.” Elsa said looking very confused.

Anna took it from her sister gratefully and stepped just outside.

The wind nearly pulled her off her feet, and she felt her braids jerk around her head with the powerful gale.

“Whoaw!” She gasped at the force of the cold.

It was vicious and cut right through her coat.

“Right.” She held up the laser pointer in what she hoped was the direction of the woods (and hopefully not Kristoff’s eyes) and clicked it a few times.

It wasn’t morse code or anything, but she hoped if Kristoff was there, he would get the message that she wasn’t coming, and he needed to take shelter.

Elsa was right, of course. Kristoff would have the sense to take cover. He wouldn’t be waiting out in a storm like this for her.

She thought she head the roar of a bear before she went back inside.

*****

It was so silly. She shouldn’t do it... But she was very cold in her room late that night.

So, jumped out from underneath her covers and rushed to her dresser to grab Kristoff’s sweater from where she’d been keeping it for him.

She slipped it over her head quickly and ducked back beneath her duvet, embarrassed by her own actions.

It was a very nice sweater, though. Fairly soft and very warm. And it actually smelled… nice. Like the forest on a winter’s day. And something else gentle and earthy.

It faintly smelt of pine and leather. That was it. That was what it smelled like.

Anna buried her nose in it and went to sleep.

*****

Anna wasn’t sure why, but she was a bit nervous after that snowstorm. What if Kristoff had been hurt? What if he decided he didn’t want to keep coming back to meet her?

Why did she care so much?

But he was there, waiting at the edge of the woods just before nightfall.

“Kristoff!” She exclaimed, and without thinking threw her arms around his big neck.

To her surprise, he rested his head heavily against her shoulder, and raised a large paw to lay against her back.

“I didn’t know if you’d be coming today.” She told him honestly and pulled back, feeling that her cheeks were a bit warm.

He merely gave a shrug.

“Just can’t resist me, can you?” She joked.

He didn’t really respond.

“That was some snowstorm though!” Anna said brightly, turning to go farther into the woods, looking for the two pine trees where Kristoff usually let them into the Valley.

Kristoff gave a grunt of agreement.

“I was worried you’d get too cold.”

He paused and lifted a paw to gesture to his general form.

“Right, I know you’re a bear.” Anna nodded. “But blizzards are still dangerous.”

He nodded in agreement.

“But I was going to tell you! I’ve had an idea! What if I wrote a children’s book? Like what if I used all these illustrations to make a little kid’s story. It would be so cool! And it could bring recognition to my heritage. Not in such a dynamic way as what Elsa’s doing, but still. And I could use all the drawings of the trolls, and it’s not like anybody would know they were real, because nobody else knows they exist! What do you think?”

The noise Kristoff made seemed like one of approval.

“Yay! I knew you would think it was a great idea! You’ll have to help me with the story when you shift back.”

Kristoff’s big paws stopped for a moment.

“What?” She stopped to look at him,

But he shook his head and continued along like he hadn’t paused.

*****

The trolls had taught Anna a very complex game (somewhat similar to baseball) that left Anna breathless and exhausted from running up and down the valley. 

“Whew!” She flopped down next to Kristoff where he was lounging with his head on his paws. “I am worn out!”

He gave an amused rumble.

“I didn’t see you participating.” She gave him a bit of an annoyed look. “You know the moody and brooding look isn’t good on you.”

Then without even thinking about it, she leaned backwards, into his side.

She though she felt him stiffen at the contact, but then he seemed to relax beneath her.

“Your fur is very soft for a bear.” She commented idly after a moment of stoking her fingers through it. “I was expecting it to be coarse, and rough, and horribly matted. Do you use conditioner?”

Kristoff’s chuff of laughter was unmistakable.

Anna wondered if that’s what his actual hair felt like.

*****

“I have to… I have to go out to the treeline.” Anna insisted, leaning heavily against her doorway.

“Listen, you have a fever.” Elsa said sternly. “I don’t want to catch it. Kristoff doesn’t want to catch it. He’ll understand. Why he doesn’t just come up to the door is beyond me… Now go lay back down in your bed, right now.”

“Okay.” Anna nodded weakly, feeling surprisingly teary eyed.

“This is probably because you haven’t been getting enough _rest_.” Elsa gave her a look that reminded Anna sharply of their mother.

“Oh, shut up, you.”

“Now, Honey and I are going to the movies. I’m staying over at her place. You stay put. Drink lots of fluids. And for Ahtohallan’s sake, sleep!”

Anna slipped Kristoff’s sweater over her head, pulled off her pajama bottoms, and was asleep before her head even hit the pillow.

\---

She awoke to Olaf giving happy little yips.

“Shush.” She put her hands to her ears, the noise seeming to split her skull.

Olaf merely jumped onto her bed, and perched on her chest and continued to bark.

“Olaf what is it?” She glared.

When she sat up, there at her window a pair of brown eyes were peering in at her with unmistakable concern.

“Kristoff!” She gasped, leaping out of her bed.

She hurried out of her room, to her sister’s back door and threw it open the cold air biting against her exposed legs.

Kristoff looked incredibly awkward in his bear form, standing on Elsa’s back porch. He was clearly uncomfortable, and far, far too big to be there.

Yet there he was.

Olaf was yapping in excitement, his little legs running him around the room, jumping up onto the sofa and leaping off. Anna was unsure whether or not this was due to the fact that he was a very, very dumb dog, or if he was just perceptive enough to know that it was not, in fact, a _real_ bear.

Kristoff seemed faintly amused and bent down for a moment to nuzzle Olaf.

“Kristoff, what are you doing here?” She asked with a smile, even though she knew he couldn’t answer.

He took a moment to look up and just stare at her.

That’s when she realized she probably looked like a complete wreck. Her hair was coming undone from her double plaits, and her nose was still a bit runny, and she could still feel that she was flushed from her fever. Then of course, she wasn’t wearing any pants. Though, the sweater she’d put on stopped just above her knees, so it wasn’t too scandalous…. She realized that she was very obviously wearing _his_ sweater.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t come. I got sick.” She said, awkwardly shuffling her legs to try and hide them. “I-I um. Sorry.”

Kristoff merely shook his head clearly (or at least clearly to her) indicating that she had nothing to apologize for.

Not for the first time she wished he was a man again, even if only for a moment. She wanted to ask him what he was thinking. She wanted to know why exactly he had come up to her sister’s door late at night (it felt like it was to check and see if she was okay, but she really couldn’t be sure). She wanted to know how he felt.

She wanted to _know_ what was going through his mind.

The way those brown eyes watched her…

She wanted him to be human again and wrap his manly arms around her and kiss her senseless.

Then she remembered she had a fever and realized that wouldn’t be a good idea.

“I’d offer for you to come in… but I don’t think I’d be able to cover up the fact that I’d let a bear into the house.” Anna chuckled to him. “Maybe I could open up Elsa’s shed for you. Wait just one second, I’ll go get dressed-“

He gave that little growl that sounded like “Anna” and shook his head emphatically ‘no’.

Then he gave a gentle rumble and nodded his head back towards her bedroom, indicating that she should get back to sleep.

“I probably should go back to bed, yeah.” Anna nodded. “Okay. If I’m better, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He turned to go.

“Wait! Kristoff!” She began to step off the porch, but her feet met snow and she jumped back inside.

He stepped back up the door so that he was nearly inside and blocked some of the cold wind from hitting her.

She couldn’t quite stop her hand from reaching out to stroke the side of his face, and he leaned his great big head into her hand ever so slightly.

She hoped she remembered this tomorrow. She hoped this wasn’t just her fever playing tricks on her mind.

“How many more days until you turn back?” She asked quietly.

He held up his paw, revealing four obvious claws.

“Four days. Okay.” She nodded, which made her head ache just a bit, and she grimaced involuntarily. “Right. I should get back to sleep. See you tomorrow, Kristoff. If I'm not still sick. Try to stay warm.”

She stroked his face one more time and he nuzzled her palm gently. Then he turned and took off into the night.

She didn’t have the energy to try and evaluate what on earth was going on inside her, so she merely laid back down on the couch, cuddled up underneath the afghan with Olaf and went right back to sleep.

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to make sure that I am clear -- Anna is NOT sexually attracted to Kristoff when he is a bear! (this is not that kinda fic!) Any physical interactions between them are all Anna realizing that Kristoff, even in his bear form, is still actually a man underneath that, and she wishes he could be a permanent manly dude all the time and slam her against the wall... I hope I made that clear??


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote another chapter *sobs from the effort*. Please enjoy!!! 
> 
> OH! and Happy Hannukah!!  
> 
> 
> (There is some harsh language in this chapter! So read with care!)

When Anna woke the next morning, she wasn’t any better. In a fog, she let Olaf out the back door because he had been whining to go. That’s when she realized there were bear tracks all over Elsa’s back porch, some of them nearly inside the door.

‘ _So, it wasn’t a dream!_ ’

She quickly grabbed a broom.

“Anna?” Elsa called a few minutes later. “What on earth are you doing?”

“I…” The broom she had been so frantically using to sweep over Kristoff’s pawprints stilled. “I dropped something in the snow.”

“Anna come back inside. You are still sick!”

“Okay.” Anna sighed weakly.

*****

She left cold smoked salmon on her windowsill as the sun began to set, and a few of the cookies she’d intended to bring with her to the trolls before she’d fallen ill.

And did she purposely throw one bare leg out from under her covers, knowing that he would look in and see? Maybe.

When she woke up the next morning her treats were gone, and she smiled as she quickly swept away his pawprints from below her window.

*****

“I need to get better!” Anna moaned, flopping on her sister’s couch.

“Keep drinking your tea,” Elsa instructed, “and your cold medicine, and you will get better.”

“I need to be better now!”

“Why?” Elsa asked curiously.

“I just… I hate being sick is all.”

Anna didn’t want to admit that she was terrified she wouldn’t be well enough to go out and visit Kristoff on the first night he shifted back. And she definitely could not have that.

“Well then, drink up.” Elsa instructed.

Anna knocked back her tea, letting it scald her throat all the way down.

“All better. Now it’s time for me to go meet Kristoff.”

“No way.” Elsa said firmly.

“At least let me go to the treeline.” Anna groaned, then sat up. “Wait! You’re not my mom, you can’t tell me what to do.”

Anna felt her whole body ache in protest as she put on a coat, and some boots.

“Okay, maybe I won’t go out tonight.”

“I’m sure Kristoff will understand.” Elsa gave a bit of a rueful grin. “If you haven’t got him sick already.”

“I haven’t.” Anna scowled.

She begrudgingly went to bed without going to see Kristoff for the third night in a row. She left him snacks on her windowsill again. In the morning as she quickly swept over the snow again, she noticed two dainty blue feathers on her sill.

She wondered how he had managed to carry something so delicate in his big jaws. She wondered how he had known that particular shade of blue was her favorite.

Only two more days now.

*****

After taking an array of strange smelling medicines Yelena had brought her (and she had chugged them a bit haphazardly), Anna was feeling right as rain.

“The sun is setting so early!” Anna exclaimed to Elsa as they sat together on the living room floor, sorting through some of Anna’s rough draft sketches for her book.

She had tried to utilize her sick time well, as she did not much like being idle… or being away from Kristoff long.

“Yep.” Elsa nodded.

“Like at 2:00 in the afternoon. That is crazy! I guess that’s what we get for living at the top of the world.”

“Mhmm.” Elsa seemed preoccupied as she looked over Anna’s drawings.

“If you had told me that before I moved here, I probably never would have come.” Anna joked. “But now I kind of like it.”

“Seeing as you only ever meet Kristoff right before sunset…” Elsa’s murmured quietly.

Anna looked up at her sister.

“What?”

“It’s.. it’s nothing, nevermind. These are fantastic, though Anna. I’m seriously so proud of you. And this story you’ve come up with is captivating.”

She hadn’t officially decided on any names yet, but the children’s book she had created was about a young boy and his pet reindeer living with a group of magical trolls. Any similarities to those living was merely coincidental.

“Thank you.” Anna said, glowing a bit under her sister’s praise. “Anyway, I’d better get going. It’s getting late… or not that late… but it will be dark soon.”

“Okay, be safe! And use protection.”

“Elsa, I’ve already told you a million times-“

“I’m just saying! In case the opportunity presents itself.”

*****

She tried to be calm, but she was nearly buzzing as she hurried to meet Kristoff at the tree line.

‘ _This is the last night before he changes back.’_

Those words kept bouncing around in her head with ferocity.

Kristoff gave a soft bellow when he saw her bounding towards him, and he loped the rest of the way to greet her.

“Hi!” Anna couldn’t contain herself and threw her arms around his wide neck. “I’ve missed you!”

Kristoff gave an uncharacteristically gentle sound in response, and the weight of his head across her shoulder and back was welcome.

She realized she was unabashedly burying her face in his fur before she pulled back, a bit embarrassed.

“And I missed you too, Sven!” Anna gave the reindeer an affectionate kiss on his velvety nose, and he brayed happily in response.

“So! I brought extra cookies for the trolls, seeing as they have probably been _so_ starved since I got sick.”

Kristoff snorted and rolled his eyes.

“I brought some for you too, Mr. Grumpy Pants.” Anna poked him in his shoulder.

He snorted again, but it sounded like he was pleased. Then he turned and opened the valley for them.

*****

“Do you want me to meet you earlier tomorrow?” Anna asked as Kristoff walked her home after a very rowdy evening with the trolls. “That way we can get to your cabin in time?”

Kristoff snorted and shook his head ‘no’.

“Oh… Um… Okay.” Anna said. “You’re just going to change into a naked man in the valley and run around with a moss towel on? Oh wait, I could bring you your pants and that sweater back.”

Kristoff shook his head emphatically ‘no’ again.

“Are you trying to tell me that you don’t want me around tomorrow-“

Kristoff groaned and shook his head again.

“Then… what?”

Kristoff looked like he was trying to explain something but was having trouble due to his inability to use words.

He kept pointing to himself, gesturing to his bear form, making a strange motion with his paws, then pointing back to Anna.

“Um…” Anna looked at Sven and realized that she was hoping a reindeer could translate for her. “I…I don’t know what you’re saying.”

Kristoff grunted in frustration, then carefully with a claw, bent down and scribbled words in the snow.

“You’ve been making me guess what you’re saying for a _month_ and you could have been writing responses??” Anna looked at him incredulous.

He huffed, obviously struggling.

In very poorly drawn letters, the words ‘Get you at 3:30’ were scrawled into the snow.

“Ohhhh.” Anna said. “Then we’re not going to see the trolls… because that will be after dark.”

Kristoff nodded.

“Okay.” She said. “Well. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

She gave his furry cheek a quick kiss and then hurried to Elsa’s house without looking back.

She knew he watched her until she made it safely inside, though. She could feel his eyes on her.

*****

“Anna… are you okay?” Honeymaren asked as Anna rushed around her room, a bit crazed.

“I don’t know what to wear!” She cried flinging out her hands in despair.

Her room looked like a small bomb had gone off. Not a single article of clothing she owned was in its proper place. It was all strewn about her bed and the floor.

“Wear clothes?” Honeymaren suggested, coming into Anna’s room to wade through her options.

“Yes, but which clothes!” Anna looked into her mirror again, wondering for the fifth time if she was wearing the right amount of makeup (Was it too much? Or was it too little? What statement was she trying to make, exactly? Should she be making a statement? Why was she so nervous? Oh, that’s right, because Kristoff was hot as hell and about to be a real-life _man_ for the first time in a month.).

“What’s the big occasion?” Honeymaren asked, sorting through Anna’s tops.

“I-uh. I don’t exactly know.”

“Are you going out someplace?”

“I don’t know.”

“So, it’s a surprise?”

“Mhmm.” Anna nodded. “I guess.”

“Well then you’ll want to dress warm, obviously.”

Honeymaren laid out some fleece lined leggings and a pair of dark jeans for her bottoms.

“Then,” she continued, “we need something that compliments your skin tone, and brings out your eyes.”

“You pick it for me.” Anna sighed flopping on the floor pitifully.

“Everybody okay in here?” Elsa asked knocking on the doorjam.

“Noooo.” Anna groaned covering her face with her hands.

“Your sister is having a bit of a meltdown getting ready for this _date_ with Kristoff.”

Elsa, who had clearly been getting ready to go out on a shoot, set her camera down on Anna’s dresser.

“I… I don’t even really know if it’s a date.” Anna admitted.

“Well, what did he say?” Elsa asked coming into Anna’s room to help Honeymaren sort.

_‘Nothing. He was a bear at the time’_

“He said he was going to come get me at 3:30. Not that he’d meet me. He said he was coming to get me. And we’re not going to our usual… spot.”

“Hmm.” Elsa hummed. “Sounds like a date to me. We gotta spruce you up a bit.”

“Rude.” Anna grumbled.

“Well you are currently wearing an old sweater and grimy sweatpants that you had in highschool.” Elsa pointed out. “Though your makeup is good. I will give you that. Subtle, but not understated.”

“This is a nice sweater!” Anna exclaimed adamantly.

It was Kristoff’s, of that Anna was certain her sister knew, but Elsa didn’t press the matter.

Anna had been disappointed to find that the sweater no longer smelled like him. So, she’d washed it (which seemed wise anyway, considering she’d worn it while she was feverish), a bit begrudgingly. Though she found it was still a remarkably warm and comfortable, so she kept wearing it, wondering now if she was ever going to give it back.

“Come here.” Honeymaren patted a spot on the bed she’d cleared. “Let Elsa pick the outfit and I’ll do your hair.”

“Thank you.” Anna groaned.

*****

The knock on the door startled her.

She’d been sitting on the couch, pretending to focus on something other than the clock, but as it clicked nearer and nearer to 3:30 she gave up. She had pulled the thing off the wall, set it right in front of her and stared. She also kept bouncing her leg, and nervously adjusting the sweater on her shoulders (it was one of Elsa’s and a bit lower cut than she normally wore, and her hair, which Honeymaren had done in loose waves, kept tickling her).

“It’s him!” Honeymaren giggled peering out the front window, Elsa and Olaf right there with her. “Oh, and Anna, he looks like he’s dressed up all for you!”

Both Elsa and Honeymaren had canceled their plans in favor of sticking around to see what happened when Kristoff came to pick her up. (“I’ll be able to catch Ahtohallan tomorrow night. Besides the weather is supposed to be just slightly warmer anyway.”)

“Shh.” Anna insisted. “He’ll hear you.”

Then she rose to her feet and walked to the door.

Her hand was shaking as she went for the knob, though she couldn’t figure out why.

She took a deep breath and reminded herself that breathing was good. There was nothing to be so worked up about. She knew Kristoff. She’d been spending nearly every moment with him she possibly could, and despite their inability to communicate verbally she felt like she understood him on a level that she hadn’t known existed. So, really. She shouldn’t be nervous.

_‘Yeah but you couldn’t really jump into his arms and kiss him until neither of you could breathe before, now could you?’_

Then she pulled open the door.

Of course, she hadn’t forgotten what he looked like.

She didn’t think she could ever forget what he looked like.

But she still sucked in a quick breath when her eyes rested on him. Maybe it was merely the anticipation.

Jesus, she felt like a teenager.

But, God, if he wasn’t _so_ hot.

He wasn’t ‘dressed up’, like Honeymaren had said. It was very difficult to be dressed up when you were bundled up against the cold. He sure looked nice, though, even in his thick goose-down coat (it made his arms look bigger, Anna noted). He had a dark blue beanie on the back of his head, his hair still coming forward on his forehead and brushing his eyebrows. And his eyes were so bright.

And he had a beard.

‘ _Oh, fuck.’_

“Hi!” She said a bit too brightly on accident.

She wanted to reach out and touch his face, but she kept her hands firmly to herself, because it seemed a bit rude to do without asking. Though she’d touched his face when he was a bear, so how would this be any different?

_‘Because he could touch you back!’_

She kept her hands by her sides. Though she wondered what his beard would feel like under her palm. It was surprisingly dark for how blond his hair was, but she noticed several pale hairs streaking through it in the light of her sister’s doorway.

Right. Her sister and Honeymaren were less than two feet away. Best not to run her hands all over him in a completely unseemly manner.

“Uh-“ His eyes got big when he looked at her, and she saw them flick up and down her form quickly. “Hi. Hey. You… um… you look great. Not that you don’t always but… you look really nice.”

“Thanks. So do you. I like your beard.” She was sure her cheeks were as pink as his were.

“I uh… I ran out of time to shave.” He gave a nervous huff of laughter.

“I think it looks really, really good! It suits you! It’s got a very mountain man feel to it, and seeing as you are a mountain man, it fits. And it just looks really handsome.” She realized she was rambling a bit. “Um, do come inside! I just have to grab my coat. And my boots. And my gloves. And stuff.”

Olaf yipped happily and came down to sniff Kristoff’s boots, twirling in circles at the recognition.

“Hey, little guy.” Kristoff reached down to pet him as Anna collected her things.

“Hi Kristoff!” Honeymaren said as he stepped inside, a hint of knowing in her tone.

“Oh. Hi Honeymaren. Hello Elsa.”

“Hello, it’s good to see you again.” Elsa nodded, and Anna saw that she was trying (and failing) to suppress a wide grin.

“Where are you guys going tonight?” Honeymaren spoke before anyone else could say anything.

“Uh… I thought we’d go admire the Christmas decorations in town.”

“Oh, yes. Those are lovely.” Honeymaren nodded. “Very romantic.”

“Okay guys!” Anna said loudly, zipping up her coat with ferocity. “I’ll be back. Don’t wait up, bye!”

Then she grabbed Kristoff’s arm and yanked him back out the door, slamming it shut.

“Sorry about them.” She sighed once they were outside, her breath fogging up in front of her face.

“It’s alright.” He chuckled. 

His laugh was _such_ a nice sound.

She didn’t know something like that could trickle right through her.

She looked over at him again, suddenly very nervous again. He was looking down at her too, that faint smile on his face. Not quite his smirk. But a soft upturn of his lips… his lips…. And out of the corner of her eye she could still see Elsa and Honeymaren watching them from the window.

“So! Where are we going?”

“To town. Like I said.”

“Oh!” Anna was a bit surprised. “I thought you were going to show me some new place with magical sprites or something.”

“No, I would never do that. Sprites are very mean.”

“Wait, they’re real, too?” Anna paused to look at him.

“I suppose they probably are.” He was laughing. “But I was just messing with you.”

“Oh.” Anna rolled her eyes. “Sarcasm about magic doesn’t exactly play well when you _are_ a magical being.”

“Noted.” He laughed.

“So how are we getting there?” Anna asked.

“I was going to walk…” He suddenly looked worried. “Unless it’s too cold outside?”

“No, walking is fine!” She told him. “It’s only a little below freezing anyway. Elsa always says that the cold bothers me more than other people, but I haven’t minded it all that much lately.”

Then before she could stop herself, she looped her arm in his and set off at a determined pace.

*****

“Wow.” Anna sighed in amazement at the way the quaint streets looked, twinkling in little yellow lights.

She had seen Ahtohallan flashing across the sky. She’d seen a bear change into a man and then back again. And she’d spent many a night with trolls.

Yet there was something uniquely magical about the picturesque way her new home looked when it was all done up for one of the most beautiful times of year.

“I didn’t think you’d had a chance to see this yet.” He said, keeping a slow pace as they walked along the sidewalk. “They go all out every year.”

“It’s amazing.” She squeezed his bicep in excitement.

He looked down at her and grinned.

Another little match was lit in her chest.

She hadn’t forgotten the other ones were burning, but the sensation of it flickering afresh was enough to make her catch her breath.

*****

As the evening got later and later, Anna was beginning to get more and more annoyed.

She had the feeling that Kristoff had purposely made sure they were never _really_ alone for a single moment.

Which was a _shame_. Because his beard was doing all sorts of things to her. So were his arms. She had purposely let her gloved hands hang onto them, feigning slipping on ice so he would flex slightly to try and hold onto her.

It was a cheap trick, but so worth it.

And of course, she had _actually_ slipped, too. So really, who was she hurting?

“Well. It’s pretty late.” He said after they’d stopped and grabbed a bite to eat. “I guess I should walk you back.”

“Oh.” Anna said.

She didn’t know what she’d been expecting… but it hadn’t been that. It was barely even 8 o’clock. She was used to staying out all night with him.

The whole way back to Elsa’s they walked in silence. The tension was tangible, and she knew he could feel it. She was never exactly ‘quiet’, even when he was a bear and couldn’t really respond. So, her silence was louder than if she’d been jabbering away.

“Anna,” he began when Elsa’s house came into view, “I… I had a great time.”

“Me too.” She said, but she ended it more in a question.

“I just wanted to… I wanted to say thanks for being such a good… friend to me this month. I haven’t ever had anybody I could be myself with.”

“You’re welcome.” She said softening a bit.

“And thank you for keeping my secret.”

“About that, I’ve got a feeling Elsa knows something is up.” Anna chuckled. “But don’t worry. She’s not going to go digging, she’s not nearly as curious as I am… and she would _never_ tell anybody if she found out anyway. I guess I am not as sneaky as I thought I was.”

“No, you aren’t.” Kristoff chuckled.

“So, I guess I need to be a bit more careful in the future.” She raised a joking eyebrow.

But Kristoff slowed almost to a stop.

“Kristoff?”

“I… Listen. I… I wanted to take you out tonight so we could just be normal for a moment… but I’m not normal. And I can’t do this to you anymore.”

The world fell oddly silent and still for a moment.

Had she imagined he’d said that?

“Wait… what?”

“You are just-“ He seemed to be struggling to find the right words. “Anna, you are the most extraordinary person I have ever met… and I don’t know, how you feel? But I get the idea that maybe… you could have maybe developed some sort of feelings for me? And believe me, I care about you! You have no idea how much I care about you. It actually scares me. But I can’t do this to you anymore.”

His words were pushing her away. But he stripped off his gloves, stepped close to her and cupped her face in his hands.

The feeling of his rough fingers against her cheeks was almost too much.

“Then tell me what I can do to help you.” Anna whispered, looking into his eyes desperately.

He took a breath. He thought about it. She could tell.

“Anna, I can’t do that to you. It’s not fair.”

The words cut her so deep it nearly took the wind out of her.

“No, Kristoff." She felt tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. "The fact that you are leaving me in the dark is what’s not fair.”

“Please,” he begged, “this is already killing me. Please don’t cry.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

She said firmly and knocked his hands away, instantly missing the feel of them.

And she ran back to her sister’s front door and slammed it firmly behind her.

Elsa and Honeymaren were sitting together on the couch and looked up at her startled when she entered so abruptly.

“Anna? What’s wrong?” Elsa leapt to her feet.

Anna sank to the floor with her back on the door and burst into tears.

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry. This is why I can't have nice things.  
> At least I gave you big bear hugs :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it! I wrote another chapter! And it is full of words! I hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> Gonna take a quick break from writing for the Christmas-y days, but I thought I would be fair and post this before I go. Wouldn't want to end up on the naughty list for the way I left it on the last chapter!

It took Anna less than ten minutes to realize that they were both being absolutely ridiculous. Kristoff more so than her, but still. 

What was it that Bulda had told her? People make bad choices when they’re mad or scared.

Well Kristoff had literally told her he was scared. And she had been very mad.

Why were they both pushing each other away?

It might be getting close to the longest night of the year, but she only had a limited amount of time where he would still be a man. Why was she sitting pouting like a child? Why was she letting him get away? She hadn’t left him in peace before and she wasn’t about to start now.

After a few minutes of Elsa and Honeymaren desperately trying to find out what was wrong with her, and Anna muttering incoherent responses, she stood suddenly.

“Oh god, we are being so stupid!” She then ripped open the door and ran back outside. “Kristoff!”

But he was very clearly long gone.

“Kristoff!” She shouted again.

She found his footprints in the snow, and saw they were headed North, towards his cabin.

“Damn it.” She grumbled to herself and set off in the direction of Ryder’s.

“Anna!” Elsa called after her. “Where are you going?”

“To get Sven! Don’t wait up!”

*****

“Anna,” Ryder seemed concerned. “Are you sure this is a good idea. I mean it’s one thing when I know you’re with Kristoff, because he grew up on the mountain but you’re-“

“Please Ryder.” Anna begged.

“Alright…” He looked reluctant. “But if you don’t bring him back, I’m going to report it as a reindeer theft, okay?”

“I will bring him back in the morning. No question.” Anna nodded firmly and gave him a quick hug. “Thanks, you are the best.”

“I know.” He grinned. “Now go get your boyfriend.”

“Thanks.” She chuckled.

“Oh! Watch out for wolves. And the Great White Bear!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be on the lookout.”

*****

“This was a bad idea, this was a bad idea, this was a bad idea.” Anna kept muttering.

Sven seemed to huff in agreement.

It was dark (very dark) and the farther up the mountain she went the colder it got. She had completely forgot to put her gloves back on when she’d taken them off to wipe tears from her eyes, and she was bitterly regretting it now. She tried tucking her fingers under Sven’s harness, hoping that his fur would protect her, but the tops of her hands were still facing the biting wind.

Anna could hear wolves howling close by.

“Come on buddy, faster.” She gently clicked her heels into the reindeer’s side. “You know the way better than I do.”

He gave a nervous bray and set off at a quicker pace.

Anna just hoped that the wolves would somehow understand that she knew the Great White Bear and leave her alone.

*****

“Kristoff!” She called as his cabin came into view. “Kristoff!!”

Even in her own ears she could hear that her voice was strangled with fear.

She could hear the wolves howling, closer and closer. Sven was galloping full out, and if Anna wasn’t mistaken, she could hear the padding of paws in the snow, keeping pace alongside them.

She clung to Sven’s harness for dear life.

“Anna?”

Due to the fact that he had been walking, and she had been on Sven, she had caught him just as he reached his front door.

“Kristoff!” She and Sven galloped right up to his porch, when they skidded to a halt snow went flying.

“What’s wrong?” He barely got the time to finish the words when two gray wolves came into the clearing.

They had slowed considerably, upon approaching Kristoff’s home, and their body language clearly read that they were nervous to be there.

Kristoff quickly stepped past Sven and Anna. He took two steps towards the wolves, and though they held their ground, they sunk lower in a submissive stance.

His voice wasn’t even raised, if anything he lowered it, but the authority he commanded as he told them to leave in a strange language (Anna wasn’t sure what it was, because it didn’t sound Norwegian) was astounding.

The wolves paused for a moment, seemingly disappointed that they had run all that way for nothing. But they didn’t disobey.

Anna felt a shiver at the power he held.

He was the king of the forest, no question.

“Anna!?” He then turned to look at her once the wolves were gone, and he was scowling deeply. “What are you doing here!? I told you not to go wandering around on your own! It’s too dangerous for you at night without me! You could have gotten yourself killed!”

She hopped off Sven’s back.

“I know!” She shouted at him, marching up until she was standing directly in front of him. “You shouldn’t have run off without me then.”

“You slammed the door on me!”

“I know! I was wrong!”

“Well then what-“

She grabbed the front of his jacket and jerked his face down, so it was level with hers.

“You don’t get to push me away.” Anna said firmly, looking into his eyes.

He was surprised for a moment. Then his gaze flicked down to her lips, then back up to her eyes.

One of those pesky little matches lit. This time she could feel the heat of it threatening to burn her.

“Anna it’s just not fair to you-“ He started to protest but she interrupted him.

“You don’t get to make decisions for me either.” Her grip on his coat tightened.

“I-“ He seemed shocked by her words, as if he didn’t realize that was exactly what he had been doing.

“I am only just now discovering that I can do what I want with my life.” She pushed on past any apology she could see forming in his eyes, because she had things to say. “And you don’t get to take that away from me without any explanation. I get to decide what I want for myself! And I want so many things!”

“Like what?”

His voice was so low. Such a soft rumble. She felt it vibrate from her hands, where they were still clutching onto him, and up her arms and into her chest.

Another match struck. The flame was growing so big that it was sucking out all of her oxygen, and she was having trouble breathing.

“Well right now I just want you to kiss me, goddammit.” She whispered.

He hesitated for the briefest second.

Then his mouth slammed into hers with a force that made her think, just for a moment, she’d been knocked off the edge of the mountain. But then she looped her arms around his neck tightly fingers tangling into his soft hair, and she felt steady again.

_‘He kissed me! I can’t believe it! He actually kissed me! He’s currently kissing me! Right now!’_

Those matches in her chest quickly burned into an inferno and licked up the inside of her ribcage and engulfed everything else in flames.

Before she knew it, her legs were wrapped around his waist. She had snaked her arms under the collar of his coat and his sweater, pressing her cold fingers into the warm skin of his back.

_'_ _Of course his back is muscular,_ _too_ '

The way his beard kept gently scratching her face left her gasping and she couldn’t get close enough.

Her neediness would almost be embarrassing if weren’t being met with the same frantic passion.

Kristoff wrapped one arm around her firmly, and with his other he caught one of her thighs tightly to help hold her up. He leaned into her desperately. She had already parted her lips against the pressure of their kiss, and his tongue darted out to swipe her bottom lip.

Anna moaned loudly.

His breathing was so ragged. The way he _clutched_ her…

_‘God, how are his hands so big?’_

She hadn’t even realized it, but he’d walked her to his front door and pushed it open with his foot.

Already her body was rocking against his with want. No, _need_.

Kristoff set her down for a moment, though she followed him to the heater, her lips never leaving his, and he flicked it on.

Then there was a flurry to remove their coats and hats.

Anna slipped her fingers underneath the hem his sweater, and he groaned at the contact of her fingers against his stomach.

And then they paused, a mere inches from one another, and stared.

Anna’s fingers still rested on the lower plain of his abdomen, and they itched to go higher. To pull his sweater off and greedily run across the broad expanse of his chest. But they both seemed to realize exactly where that would lead them.

The only reason she knew they didn’t stay there staring at one another for years and years, was because he didn’t turn back into a bear. That was going to happen when the sun rose. So, obviously, it had only been a few minutes (a few hours at the most).

“I’m sorry, Anna.” He finally spoke.

“For what?”

“For pushing you away. I just… I just don’t what to do. You’re so beautiful, and wonderful, and kind, and creative, and smart… it’s terrifying. I’m sorry-”

“I’m sorry, too.” She stepped closer, not removing her fingers, reveling in the warmth of his skin. “I shouldn’t have pushed you away either. I know this has got to be hard.”

“Anna.” He sighed, looking at her in blatant adoration.

He reached up to run his fingers through her gently waved hair.

Her name, whispered in such a reverent prayer, made her knees go weak and she leaned into him.

He let his fingers trail down her shoulders and then the back of her arms, pulling her fingers away from where they were pressed against him so he could lace his hands into hers.

It left embers glowing wherever he touched.

If only she didn’t have on these damn clothes.

“I’ve wanted to touch you for so long.” He admitted, his voice sounding a bit strangled.

“Then touch me.” She breathed back.

He looked so tempted. She was offering herself so willingly.

“I-“ He swallowed. “I need to talk to you first.”

*****

They sat down at his kitchen table, much like the last time they had been there together. He’d made her cocoa again (Anna thought it might be so he could get his thoughts in order), while she merely sat quietly and waited.

She carefully sipped her mug, waiting for him to speak. She then watched the cinnamon swirl on the surface. He hadn’t had any whipped cream this time, so it was an entertaining thing to blow on it and watch the patterns the spice created while she waited.

“So.” He eventually said. “You know what my Ma said about breaking the enchantment?”

She looked up at him, a bit surprised that he had jumped right in, but happy that he wasn’t going to beat around the bush.

“That it happens on the solstice?””

“Yes. Well.” He took a deep breath. “The specifics of the enchantment… are that it can only be broken when Ahtohallan sings on the longest night of the year; the winter solstice.”

“Okay.” Anna nodded.

“And… well… That doesn’t happen every year.”

“How often does Ahtohallan ‘sing’ on a winter solstice?”

“About every seven years.”

“Oh.” Anna blinked in surprise.

“That is _why_ I didn’t want you to get involved with any of this in the first place.” He grumbled, not looking at her and sucking down a swig of his cocoa. “God, I wish I had something stronger to put in this...”

“Okay, so what happens if your enchantment isn’t broken?”

“Well, I continue mostly the same as I have for the past 20 years. I turn into a bear most of the time, and then a man on the nights when Ahtohallan is visible."

“Oh…” Anna chewed her lip thinking of how badly she had wanted him to _stop_ being a bear, if only for a moment the past month.

That had only been for a month.

"The only trouble is… the older I get… the harder it is to shift back into a man. I mean, I’ve got a ways to go before it's too much… but It gets more and more painful. And one day it will be so painful that I’ll have to ask the trolls to make the enchantment permanent.”

"Oh." 

“And… I just… I didn’t want to drag you into this, because it’s ridiculous no matter what way you look at it. I would never ask you to break my enchantment. It’s only been three and a half months since I very first saw you, and I would never ask you to make such a big commitment… and then I would never ask you to stick around for seven more years while I spend most of my days as a bear! That’s… that’s not the life you deserve Anna!”

“I will be the judge of that, thank you very much.” Anna said with a jesting severity.

“It’s not.” He replied firmly, meeting her eyes. “You deserve someone who can be with you every day and can just reach down and hold your hand… and… give you all the things you want, like a family.”

She didn’t comment. She knew when she had first spoken of how she broke off her engagement, the pain in her voice when she’d told him she didn’t have any children was enough to give it away.

She desperately wanted a family of her own and he knew it. She hadn’t needed to verbally tell him.

He had been paying such close attention.

“So… what all does breaking the enchantment entail exactly?” Anna asked him slowly. “You just said you’d never ask me to make such a big commitment. What exactly did you mean by that?”

His cheeks turned pink.

“I- uh…” He cleared his throat. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“We’re way past that.” She laughed at his embarrassment. “What is it? A true loves kiss or something? Because I can definitely get behind kissing you again.”

“It’s uh,” his pitch raised a bit, “it’s a bit more… involved than that.”

“Oh.” Anna felt her eyebrows raise, and the heat of their earlier kiss come flooding back.

“It’s not just… it’s not just…sex.” He coughed, and his cheeks got redder (and she noticed his flush went down and disappeared below the neck of his sweater). “It’s more than that. It’s a covenant.”

“A covenant? Like weird blood stuff you see on really creepy shows on History Channel?”

“No, not like that.” He shook his head quickly. “It’s… it’s a marriage. For life.”

“Oh.”

“And after the… consummation of the marriage,” he blushed brightly again at his words, “I have to swim out to Ahtohallan as a bear and spend a year there.”

“A full year?” Anna blinked incredulously. “Why a full year?”

“I don’t know?” Kristoff shrugged. “It’s like a hibernation, and as I hibernate, I turn back into a man. It’s just how this magic works. It’s ancient stuff.”

“So that part of the fairy tale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon is real? The wife searching for her husband a year?”

“It seems too similar to my own situation to not be.”

“I see.” She chewed her lip again. “And where is Ahtohallan? I didn’t realize it’s a place I thought it was just… a magical thingy.”

“It’s… hard to explain. I don’t know exactly where it is. I’m connected to it, and if I focus on it when I’m a bear, I can feel Ahtohallan… out there across the sea.”

“But how do you get back? Bears can swim in really cold water… and men…can’t…”

“That’s the thing, whoever breaks the enchantment has to find me when the year is up.”

“That seems a bit dangerous!” Anna insisted. “What if you can’t be found?”

“Well, I would die. Either of hypothermia or starvation…Probably hypothermia.”

“That’s insane!”

“That’s not even the best part. If that covenant is ever broken… I go back to being a bear… forever.”

“Oh!” Anna gasped.

They sat in silence for a long moment.

His heater buzzing loudly filled the space of the room.

Anna chewed on her lip, deep in thought.

“I’m sorry.” He finally said. “I’m sorry I’ve scared you, and I’m sorry I dragged you into this-“

“No, Kristoff.” She shooed his words away with her hand. “I’m not scared… or sorry. Besides, you did your best to avoid me at first… I was the one who was pretty determined to hunt you down.”

“That’s true. You were.” Kristoff chuckled lightly.

“It’s just a lot to take in.” Anna carefully looking at her cocoa again.

The cinnamon and chocolate swirling together.

“What did you think when you first smelt me? When you were a bear?” She suddenly blurted.

The question clearly caught Kristoff off guard.

“Why do you ask?”

“Just tell me.”

“I thought you smelled…” He paused and looked at his hands. “Do you really want me to say?”

“Yes.” She nodded her head firmly.

“I thought you smelt intoxicating. Cocoa with cinnamon is my favorite…”

Anna felt herself grin a little bit.

“And you had already seen me before I ever saw you. What did you think of me then?”

“It wasn’t like I was watching you or anything. But your sister lives on the edge of the woods, and… Well I’d just happened to see you. And you... intrigued me. You seemed so beautiful and so sad… and then you ran right into me at Yelena’s and yelled at me.” He raised an eyebrow to her.

“And what did you think of me then?” She asked giggling.

“That you were feisty.” He laughed. “Why are you asking?”

“That’s for me to know.” She grinned. “And what did you think of me when I first tumbled into the Valley of the Living Rock?”

“I was surprised. And worried. And I wondered how on earth you had managed to do such a thing. I know now that you are _very_ clumsy.”

“I am not.” Anna laughed.

“Yes,” he reached under the narrow table and squeezed her knee, “you are.”

“Hey!” She yelped a bit. “I still have questions! Don’t tickle me.”

“What’s the use of having hands if I can’t tickle you?” His eyes were alight with mischief.

“Well your cold wet nose has done perfectly well more than once.” Anna pushed her legs out so she could tangle them with Kristoff’s, because despite her protests she was loving the feeling of his hands on her.

“I know. You are very ticklish.” He caught one of her calves and squeezed it.

“Hey!” She giggled, and fought him a bit pathetically, because she absolutely did not want him to stop. “Next question! Do you have any disgusting habits when you’re a man?”

“I… don’t think so? I mean I bathe and whatnot. What kind of question is that?”

“Answer me honestly. Do you pick your nose or anything?”

“All men do that.” Kristoff smirked.

“Gross!”

“It’s true though.”

“Yuck…” She made a gagging noise. “So that’s one mark against you.”

“Mark against me? What do you mean?” He looked at her curiously.

“Do you hog the bed?”

“I don’t know, I don’t sleep in beds usually, remember?”

“Oh right…Well that’s an unfortunate thing not to know. Hmmm… I’m trying to think… Do you always leave your dirty socks and underwear on the floor?”

“No, I’m pretty tidy. I have to be. I live on my own.” He was growing more and more confused. “Anna, why are you asking me these things.”

“Do you think you could live with someone who leaves their clothes all over the place?”

“I’m sure I could… what are you going on about?”

Anna paused and regarded him for a moment.

The slight tilt of his head as he gazed at her, looking for answers. The way his eyebrows were ever so slightly drawn together, and his eyes were slightly squinted revealing little crowfeet lines around his eyes.

And she didn’t think she was every going to get over just how sexy his beard was.

“Do you love me?” She asked.

He held her gaze for a moment.

“I mean, I know we haven’t known each other very long,” she began to ramble, feeling her cheeks grow red, “but you did say you cared about me. And I care about you too! A lot… but I was just wondering if you mean it just in like a platonic sense… I mean I guess we did just make out, and you seemed pretty into it, so it’s probably not platonic… I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. I was just wondering.”

Then he nodded.

“Yes. I love you, Anna.”

His voice was low, but sincere and he looked her firmly in the eyes as he said it.

Anna felt her whole body warm all over again. Or maybe it was still warm from those matches catching fire? Maybe they were still casually burning her up. Maybe they always would be. Anytime Kristoff smiled at her, or moved a certain way, or told her that he loved her (he had just said that!) she would just spontaneously burst into flames, like a phoenix. Constantly regrowing from the ashes, only to burn up all over again.

“Oh, okay.” She couldn’t help but give him a shy smile, setting down her mug on the table. “Can I make a request?”

“Okay. Anything.”

“Can I talk to my sister about this while I think it over?”

“I- wait… what?”

“I know I said I wouldn’t tell anybody, but I’d really like to talk to my sister just a little bit before I make up my mind. I mean, I’m not going to let her make any choices for me, obviously. But it would be nice to talk it out with someone who isn’t… well you.”

“Wait… Hang on.” Kristoff shook his head in bewilderment. “Are you saying… what I think you’re saying?”

“Yes.” Anna said gently running her finger along the edge of her cup. “I don’t see why you were so reluctant to tell me about this whole enchantment thing in the first place. It’s only a major life decision.”

“But… you’re… You’re considering it?”

Anna could tell she had left him completely flabbergasted. He kept blinking in disbelief and then shaking his head.

“I am.” She gave him a small smile. “That is… if you wouldn’t mind if I… If I were the one to… you know… but you did just tell me you loved me so…”

She trailed off because Kristoff let go of her legs, got up, quickly came to her side of the table and kissed her.

It wasn’t as desperate or as heated as their first kiss, but it left Anna dizzier. It was so much deeper, and so much more sincere.

She gently rested her hand on his cheek, feeling his beard scratch against her palm.

“Too bad kisses can’t break curses.” She murmured against his lips as he picked her up from her seat.

“Oh, kisses do break curses… Not enchantments though.” He wrapped his arms around her tightly, dropping his kisses to the exposed part of her shoulder.

“Oh, really? Those are the rules?” Anna giggled against the feeling of his lips, and she slid into his chest fully.

She loved the feeling of being completely wrapped up in him.

“Mhmm.” He nodded.

Then she felt something hot and wet on her shoulder and realized Kristoff was crying softly.

“Shh.” She gently stroked the back of his hair (she didn’t think she would ever stop marveling at how soft it was). “It’s going to be okay.”

“I… I didn’t know… I didn’t think I could ever be so lucky as to meet someone like you.” He sighed, the heat of his breath seeping into her skin.

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whooo had their money on true love's fuck? Because ya'll were right!   
> Now... let's see if Anna takes him up on the offer!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And just like that, Christmas is over! Here is the next little update... Hope you all enjoy!!!
> 
> This if fluff... Also there is some making out with purpose... but still T! (the next chapter might very well be M!)

“So.” Anna sighed, rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands. “That’s what’s been going on with me. How are you by the way? I haven’t really asked. Everything seems great with Honeymaren, and your photography and all that. You seem happy. Are you?”

Elsa sat on her couch staring at Anna with her big blue eyes that so matched their mother’s. She blinked a few times.

Anna had finished telling her the whole thing. From the moment she’d first bumped into Kristoff, to when she’d fallen into the Valley of the Living Rock and recognized his eyes, right up until a while ago when Kristoff had dropped her off at Elsa’s door and left her breathless with a searing kiss.

Elsa had listened in stunned disbelief and hadn’t spoken a single word.

“Well.” Her sister finally said. “As absolutely insane as it sounds… I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Really?” Anna couldn’t help but laugh. “You believe me?”

“I thought there was something strange about the fact that you would only meet him after sunset, and then there was the erratic behavior, like eating ungodly amounts of smoked salmon, all the baking, and sweeping snow whilst you were remarkably sick.”

“Yes. I’m not that sneaky, apparently.”

“No, you’re not.” Elsa chuckled. “But… wow. I want to remind you that when you first came here you thought I was crazy.”

“I did just a bit.”

“And now you’re telling me that your boyfriend is a shapeshifting bear.”

“Mhmm.”

“And he was enchanted by trolls, which are real beings apparently, with whom you have spent several of your more recent nights.”

“Mhmm.”

“And were you to break this enchantment, which was placed on your boyfriend by said trolls, you would be agreeing to a lifelong commitment.”

“Yep.” Anna made a popping noise on the letter ‘p’.

“You were right. It is a lot.”

“Right!? And this enchantment is… It’s really specific and difficult and complicated.”

“Well it _is_ magic, Anna.” Elsa said taking a strangely practical approach. “It’s hardly the stuff you see in movies.”

“Yes, but if it isn’t enough that I would have to marry him, he then has to disappear for an entire year and swim out to Ahtohallan! And then I would have to _find_ him? What if I can’t! That’s crazy! He would die! And then if the enchantment is ever broken, he turns back into a bear forever! That seems like an awful lot of pressure on me!”

“Well, you said that the longer he goes as a bear the harder it is for him to shift. So, really, he’d become a bear permanently regardless.” Elsa pointed out.

“But if it didn’t work out it would be _my_ fault!” Anna was up and pacing around the living room at this point. “I mean, not that I’m planning on it not working out! I would never ever do something so _horrible_ as to cheat or anything like that. I’ve been on the receiving end of that utter bullshit and I wouldn’t do it to another person _ever._ But people _do_ grow apart, and… and what if that happened?”

“Hmmm.” Elsa said eyeing her carefully. “Well… I think the fact that you’re so concerned means you’re leaning towards doing it.”

“I…” Anna hesitated. “I don’t know! This is a lot! It’s why I wanted to talk to you.”

“Do you love him?”

“Yes.” Anna sighed. “I do. I’ve never felt like this before, and it’s not just a surface “feeling”, it goes so much deeper. At first, I thought it was just a sexual attraction, and believe me, I am _definitely_ into him. I mean the man is absolutely gorgeous, and it hardly seems fair that I’ve got to see him naked but not had the opportunity to capitalize on it. I mean I thought we were totally going to bang earlier, but then he told me all this, and we got distracted talking and then just holding onto one another, which was beautiful and so intimate, but frankly I’m very bummed because, jesus the man is built and I so wanna-“

“Anna.”

“Right. Sorry. I’m rambling. What was I saying?”

“That this is not just sexual attraction?” Elsa raised an eyebrow.

“Right! I mean, I think he is so hot, but genuinely, this past month, I’ve never been able to understand someone so _well._ And he wasn’t even able to talk! It doesn’t feel like we just met a few months ago. I _know_ him.”

“You have been known to date real talkers in the past, so maybe someone who had to be quiet is a good thing.” Elsa furrowed her brown and leaned forward. “So, you’re in love with him?”

“Yes. Oh, Jesus! I never actually told him that! I just said I’d take today to think about whether or not I was going to break the enchantment.”

“Anna.” Elsa rolled her eyes a bit.

“I need to go tell him!”

“The sun’s been up for nearly thirty minutes, he’s probably sleeping.” Elsa pointed out. “And if you’re going to see him again tonight you definitely need to sleep. The days don’t last very long, remember?”

“Right.” Anna sighed and scrubbed her face with her hands again. “I do need sleep. But I need to decide. I don’t know what to do, Elsa. I really could use your advice.”

“Well…” Elsa said getting up to go to her laptop. “If your biggest concern is the fact that he has to swim out to Ahtohallan, and you’ll have to find him, I think I can help you there.”

“What do you mean?” Anna perked up.

Elsa brought it over, clicking a few things and then placing a heavily zoomed image across Anna’s knees.

“What am I looking at, exactly?” Anna asked.

“Do you remember what the legends say? About Ahtohallan being a river across the sea?”

“I remember Ryder saying something of that nature, yes.” Anna nodded.

“And do you remember that lullaby mother used to sing to us?”

“Faintly? I think I usually fell asleep in the first verse.”

“Well I was thinking about it just the other day, because I remember it was always one of my favorites and I felt like I had such a strange connection to the song... well it got me thinking. Glaciers are considered to be rivers in the sea, right?”

“I didn’t know that…”

“They are.” Elsa nodded her head. “And I started thinking, what if Ahtohallan is actually a glacier that reflects the light from the sun and the moon when the conditions are right.”

Elsa pointed to a tiny dark speck at the bottom center of the screen.

“See that?”

“Maybe?”

“I think that’s Ahtohallan.” Elsa said, her eyes bright.

“But… that’s a very… scientific explanation for all this magic. Magic that I have actually seen, by the way.”

“Magic and science usually go hand and hand.” Elsa said with such finality that Anna found it very hard to question her.

It made a strange amount of sense.

Anna chewed on her lip for a moment.

“I’m going out again tonight to get some more pictures.” Elsa continued. “The conditions are going to be absolutely perfect, and I’ll have Honey bring my extra camera and my heavy-duty lens, and we will look for you. I want to see if I’m right anyway, but I’m fairly certain I am.”

“Okay.” Anna nodded. “So, you think… you think I should do it? You think I should break Kristoff’s enchantment?”

“Well…” Elsa picked her laptop up and put it back. “In my opinion, and this is just my opinion, mind you… If you love him, and he loves you, what’s the harm in waiting 7 more years for Ahtohallan to sing on the next solstice?”

“I… I suppose you’re right…”

“That way you can be sure that this is the right thing.”

“Mhmm.” Anna chewed on her lip harder.

“Now. You need to go to bed. Your bear boyfriend will be back before you know it.”

“Right. Sleep.”

*****

There was a gentle knock on her bedroom door.

At least she thought it seemed like a gentle knock. She wasn’t sure. She was so terribly sleepy.

She stirred for a moment and mumbled something that didn’t even sound coherent in her own ears.

Then there was a big warm hand gently shaking her knee.

“Anna.” A deep voice whispered softly.

“Kris, I’m sleeping.” She mumbled back.

“I can see that.” Kristoff chuckled in reply.

Then she sat bolt upright, so that she was face to face with a pair of beautiful brown eyes.

“Kristoff!” She gasped. “I overslept! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to! Elsa was supposed to wake me before she left!”

Anna frantically combed her fingers over her hair, but then realized there was no point in trying to hide her bedhead. He’d already seen, and from the look on his face, he certainly didn’t mind.

“That’s okay.” He chuckled. “Your sister left a note on the door telling me I could come in. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.” She smiled at him. “You weren’t worried that I’d hopped on the next flight to the US when I didn’t meet you at the treeline?”

“Well I suppose I should have been, but I assumed you were just running late.”

Then she realized that he was sitting on the edge of her bed, awfully close to her, staring into her eyes.

She scrambled up so she could climb into his lap, and she was rewarded with one of his lopsided grins, and the feeling of his large hands on her waist. She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a firm kiss on his lips.

“I forgot to tell you something earlier.” Anna said, breaking their kiss after only a second.

“Oh, and what’s that?”

“I love you, too.”

The words caused Kristoff to pull back slightly, his eyes wide.

“You… you do?”

“Mhmm.” Anna nodded enthusiastically.

“I… how?” He whispered in surprise.

“How do I love you?” Anna giggled. “Well love is always a bit tricky to explain, and yet it’s also considered to be one of the simplest things in this world. Are you wanting an explanation as to why I love you?”

“Frankly, yes.” He was still blinking in surprise. “I don’t see how you could possibly…”

Kristoff trailed off in wonder.

“Well, first of all, you are very easy on the eyes. It’s also a huge plus that I’ve already seen your dick because it’s very impressive.” She told him and he blushed brightly. “But far more importantly, you are easily the nicest man I’ve ever met.”

“Really?” He looked at her with confusion.

“Definitely also the grumpiest. But underneath all that grumpiness you are kind, and considerate, and you are so unbelievably gentle.” She gently stroked his hair out his eyes. “You care about the people in your life in such a deep way. You are a fierce protector, and a generous leader, and a fair judge.”

“What are you talking about?” He chuckled.

“You’re the King of the Forest, Kristoff. And a very good one, at that. I’ve been paying attention too, you know.”

“I…” He paused. “I’m not _really_. I mean I sort of am but-”

“Yes, you are. And you’re also unbelievably thick headed and stubborn, and you challenge me. But you challenge me in a good way, and I always feel compelled to do my best with you. I trust myself more when I’m with you.”

“Anna.” He whispered softly.

“So. I love you. I didn’t have to sit around all night to figure that out.” She grinned placing a quick kiss on his lips. “I should have told you the moment you told me, I’m sorry.”

“I just… I didn’t… I don’t….”

“Oh, don’t act so surprised.” Anna laughed. “I wouldn’t have told you I’d think about breaking your enchantment if I didn’t love you back.”

“I… what did you decide?” He looked terrified to ask her.

“Elsa did point out something that was very practical…” Anna said running her fingers through his hair again.

“Oh?”

“She said, that if I love you, and you love me, what’s the harm in waiting for seven more years until the next time Ahtohallan sings on the solstice.”

Kristoff nodded.

“Which I thought was very practical.” Anna nodded, admiring the way his hair shifted through her fingers, so silky and soft. “We could spend your time as a man really getting to know one another.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“You still have seven more years before your shifting becomes too painful, right?”

“Yes, I would say so.”

“Then... that would be a very practical route.” Anna looked firmly at the hair she was busy combing. “Except…”

“Except?”

“If I’m willing to wait for seven years to make sure this is the right thing… Why wouldn’t I just do the next right thing now?”

He was silent for so long she was forced to look into his eyes.

They were open wide, and the rest of his face was slack in an expression that Anna was having a little bit of trouble reading. Was he happy? Or just so surprised he couldn’t feel anything?

He finally swallowed.

“Are you serious?”

Anna nodded, with a soft smile.

“Yeah. I mean… why wait? I love you.”

“But… Anna, you will still have to wait an entire year for me while I’m at Ahtohallan, and then you’ll have to find me-“

“Elsa can help with that.” Anna waved that away. “She’s fairly certain she’s got the whole mystical Ahtohallan thing figured out.”

“I-really?”

“Yep. She’s going to go get some more pictures tonight and make sure, but she thinks she’s found Ahothallan. It’s a glacier.”

“Ohhhh.” Kristoff sighed, the line between his eyebrows relaxing. “That makes sense…”

“And about waiting for a year… Yeah. It will be very hard, I’m sure. But I waited for a dumb idiot to fix a wedding date for nearly three years, and he didn’t even really love me. Frankly, I don’t think I had any idea what love was at the time. Now I do, and I think a year will be worth the wait when I know you’ll get to be with me, and you’ll get to be human for the rest of our lives.”

“Anna.” He wrapped his arms around her tightly, resting his head against her chest. “I… I don’t even know what to say.”

“Well the real question is do you still want to be stuck with me for life when you’ve seen what my hair looks like after I’ve slept on it.”

He chuckled.

“And I’ve kissed you before I’ve brushed my teeth, so really, the ball is in your court.” Anna laughed.

He merely looked up at her. His eyes looked like they were ready to spill over with tears, but instead of shedding them he kissed her.

At first it was sweet and gentle. A slow and languid kiss. Then they both seemed to realize that they were, once again, all alone in a house with nobody to disturb them (with the additional perk of being on a bed).

His hands, which were still on her waist gripped her firmly, pulled her tighter into his lap.

Anna gave a small squeal of approval immediately deepening their kiss and straddling him with a bit more purpose.

She found she was exceptionally grateful for the flimsy material of her pajama pants because she could feel so much as she began to rock against him.

Suddenly both of their breaths were coming in loud pants.

He broke his lips from hers to kiss along her jaw and Anna moaned.

Then he gently turned them, pushing her back against her bed, kissing her all the way down.

“Oh, Kristoff.” She murmured, as his lips found her neck, and she quickly tangled her fingers into that glorious hair of his.

His hands darted underneath her shirt, calloused fingers brushing against her sides, and she gasped.

She didn’t mean to be so loud, but her noise of surprise made Kristoff’s head pop up and he removed his hands from under her hem quickly.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured.

“No, don’t be!” She insisted, and she could feel that her cheeks were warm. “I really want you to… ya know… it just shocked me, is all. You’ve never… I mean you couldn’t up until last night… but even then, you didn’t… I mean you said you wanted…”

“To touch you?” He whispered back, gently stopping her stammering.

Anna nodded, feeling a bit shy.

“It’s all I’ve been dreaming about.” He slowly put his fingers back to the hem of her shirt. “May I?”

“You may.” She gave her permission with a soft laugh.

Slowly his fingers dipped beneath the fabric again and skated along the bare skin of her stomach.

She gave a shuddering sigh.

“Oh my god.” She breathed when his lips found her neck again.

Then she gently tugged his face back up to meet hers, their mouths meeting in a flurry.

His fingers trailed upwards, upwards, upwards but stopped right at her ribs. He gently ran his thumbs along her silhouette, trailing back down again towards the waistband of her pajama bottoms.

Anna made a frustrated moan, then reached over and clawed his sweater off over his head.

Kristoff chuckled as he moved up slightly to toss it aside.

“Patience is not one of your virtues I see?”

“It’s probably best that you know the worst about me, don’t you think?” She ran her hands along the vast expanse of his chest. “I mean, you'll have to deal with this forever.”

“Well, I think I can live with it.” He gave her a lopsided grin.

He settled his weight on top of her more firmly, his thigh jamming between her legs. His lips met hers with a heat behind them that told her they were very much on their way to all the things she had been dreaming about.

Suddenly there was a slam of a door.

“Anna!” Elsa’s voice called from living room. “Are you still here? I’ve got some amazing things to show you.”

"Yeah Anna! Come look!" Honeymaren shouted, sounding giddy.

“Are you kidding me?” Anna groaned, dropping her head back against her pillow, then she called out; “Just a second!”

“I should probably put my shirt back on.” Kristoff said with a small smirk, rolling from his position on top of her.

“Nooo.” She groaned pathetically reaching out to grasp at his chest. “Can you just stay here, I’ll go deal with my sister and we can get back at it?”

“We should probably go hear what she’s found, yeah?”

“Ugh. You’re right. I just… didn’t want to stop.”

“Me either.” His voice was deep and sent trills through her. “We’ll be able to… soon.”

“Soon.” Anna repeated firmly. 

“And then I’ll touch you everywhere.”

His eye color seemed much darker when he gave her a look full of lust, she noticed.

“Okay.” She breathed.

“Anna?” Elsa’s abrupt knock on her bedroom door brought her out of her thoughts.

Anna grumbled several swear words as she went to the door, and Kristoff pulled his shirt back over his head before she flung open the door.

“Yes?”

“Oh!” Elsa’s eyes were wide when she took in Anna’s swollen lips, and then Kristoff behind her. “Sorry to interrupt! Um… Sorry, I didn’t realize you were. Yeah. Um Sorry again. I just wanted to show you! I was right! I’ve found Ahtohallan!”

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that there are so many things about F2 that people didn't like, but I am very grateful that I can write Elsa as the super cool lesbian big sister who abandoned corporate America to run wild through the artic circle. Everything is so much more fun that way.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I lied about this chapter being M. I couldn't stop writing all the details about what happened before and during their wedding. SO! The next chapter is in the works and it is MOST DEFINITELY M. 
> 
> Enjoy the fluff. :)

Honeymaren was by no means surprised when they told her. In fact, if Anna wasn't mistaken, she thought that it seemed like they were merely confirming something she had already suspected. 

Kristoff had agreed that it would be best if she knew, ultimately meaning Ryder would need to be told as well.

“I’ll need someone to help look after my herd while I’m gone.” He had pointed out. “I’d pay him, obviously.”

Honeymaren had merely waved her hand.

“We’re going to be family. Besides, you don’t want to offer my brother money. He’s a bit of an extortionist.”

“It’s true.” Anna had nodded.

Anna had also been surprised about just how many other details needed to be sorted and before they knew it, the night was ending, and the sun was threatening to peek over the horizon as she walked Kristoff up to the tree line behind Elsa’s house.

“We didn’t get a moment alone.” She lamented.

“I know.” He sighed, squeezing her hand. “But we will once the sun sets again.”

She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that something so simple as the promise of tomorrow would cause one of those matches in her chest to strike, but the heat of it made her suck in a quick breath.

_‘Soon.’_

“What time do you want me to meet you?” Anna asked him, bouncing on her toes a bit.

“Just before sunset.” He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. “Then I’ll change back in the Valley.”

“Okay. Bulda is going to lose her mind!”

“She is, isn’t she?” Kristoff chuckled.

“Mhmm. She’s going to be so happy to have me as a daughter in-law.” Anna she giggled. “Oh! You still have to show me how to call open the Valley! I can’t go a full year without visiting the trolls!”

“I’m about to shift.” Kristoff said abruptly, pulling away to whip his sweater over his head. “I’ll tell you after the sun sets, okay?”

“Okay.” Anna said, suddenly a bit panicked that she wouldn’t be able to give him a proper goodbye.

As soon as he stepped out of his pants, she jumped into his slightly unexpecting arms. He caught her around her middle quickly and kissed her soundly before setting her away from him, so his form could change.

“I love you, Kristoff.” She whispered to the bear that was now standing before her.

He gave a soft groan in response and laid his big head against her outstretched hand.

“I can’t wait to marry you.” She giggled.

He reached up and pressed his wet nose to her cheek, with a happy grunt. Then he nodded his head back towards Elsa’s house.

“I know, I know. I need to go to bed… I’ve got such a big day ahead of me.” She gave him a mischievous grin.

He chuffed in laughter and gently pushed her forward with the flat of his head.

“Alright, alright.” She grumbled. “You better get some rest too. I need you to have all your strength.”

Bears were incapable of blushing, but Anna knew without a doubt, that if he were a man his cheeks would be red.

She gave his fuzzy cheek one final kiss.

“See you tonight.”

*****

“Okay!” Honeymaren announced, coming into the cabin with a large garment bag slung over her shoulder. “I come bearing gifts.”

“Is that a pun?” Ryder asked happily, sliding into Elsa’s living room behind her.

“Ryder.” Anna rolled her eyes as he hurried up and gave her a quick hug. “I’m guessing Honeymaren already told you.”

“Yes! And it is literally the coolest thing I have ever heard in my entire life! I should have guessed it before!” Ryder exclaimed. “And you’re going to marry him and totally get down to business! Who called it? I did! I called this! Right from the moment you first asked about him, I totally knew you two would end up having sex. I have the gift of foresight.”

“Ryder, stop!” Honeymaren scolded him, brushing him out of the way. “We have got so much to do, and so little daylight left to do it in.”

“What’s this?” Anna asked, taking the hanger from Honeymaren’s hands so she could lift the garment bag away.

“This!” She exclaimed with a flourish. “Is from my mom!”

It was a simple, and yet beautiful white gown that was coupled with a red sash.

“Wait, what?”

It felt remarkably light beneath her fingers.

“It’s a traditional wedding dress in our culture. She wanted you to borrow hers for tonight. She was about your size when she was younger.”

“No way! I couldn’t possibly!” Anna exclaimed.

“No, she insisted. You've met her, you can't say no, now. Besides, wedding dresses are passed down in our families. This dress is meant to be worn again. It’s also meant for summer weddings, but I figure once you’re out in the troll valley, it shouldn't be too cold.”

Anna was struck, once again by the wonderful oddness of this place she that had come to be her home. These people who she didn’t even know existed half a year ago were now offering her wedding dresses, completely accepting of literal magic, enchantment, and trolls, while rearranging things in their lives to help her.

“I… I don’t know what to say.” Anna murmured, running her fingers over it once more, overcome with emotion over the fact that she had a family for the first time since she was a teenager.

A strange family full of sisters, and a brother, a very severe aunt figure, reindeer, trolls, and a soon-to-be husband.

It made a lump form in her throat, and she had to swallow quickly to keep from crying.

“We don’t have time for you to say anything.” Elsa came bustling out of her bedroom, make up bag and curling wand in hand. “We have to get you ready!”

“I wish you could be there.” Anna remarked idly as Elsa pushed her into a seat.

“It’s okay, I understand there is private magic involved.” Elsa smiled softly. “We’ll be there next year when you and Kristoff make it legal with the government, and all that.”

“I know, but…”

“Really, Anna. It’s okay.” Elsa put a gentle hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Just think of it as eloping.”

“Eloping with your permission?” Anna giggled. “And apparently now, with a traditional wedding dress.”

“Yes. A very strange elopement. If you want to imagine I’ll be shocked and disapproving when you get back to keep the excitement alive, you can.”

“Will you be? Shocked and disapproving, that is.”

“No, of course not! I’m so happy for you!”

“I just thought you might think I’m rushing things a bit… seeing as you did think we should wait.”

“Anna,” Elsa said firmly looking into her eyes, “I trust your judgment, and so should you. If you are happy, I am happy.”

“Okay, good.” Anna grinned. “Because I am really, really happy.”

Elsa surveyed her face carefully then gave a smile and a firm nod.

“Good. Then let’s get you ready.”

*****

“Hi!” Anna hurried forward to meet Kristoff at the tree line.

He gave a happy sound, coming out farther than he ever had before to meet her, well within the view of Elsa’s house.

“Hi ya Kris!” Ryder’s voice echoed loudly out towards them.

Anna turned, a bit annoyed, seeing Ryder standing in the doorway, waving emphatically.

Kristoff gave an amused huff and raised a paw for him. 

“Oh my god! It’s really him!” Ryder screeched in an unnaturally high pitch.

“Of course, it is! Now shut the door! It’s cold outside!” Honeymaren could be heard, and Ryder’s figure was suddenly jerked from the lighted doorway, and the door slammed shut.

“Remember when I said Ryder had a crush on you as the Great White Bear? It’s all he’s been talking about for the past few hours.” Anna gave Kristoff an annoyed roll of her eyes.

Kristoff gave a small chuff, and he finished closing the distance between them, placing his head over her shoulder tightly.

“I do think I’ll miss you bear hugs…” Anna commented idly as she gently rubbed her cheek into his fur. “So, you’ll just have to wrap me up nice and tight as often as you can, okay?”

He nodded against her.

“Now we’d better get going or we won’t make it before the Valley closes!” Anna said.

Kristoff gave a grunt and nuzzled the garment bag in her hand.

“Oh this? It’s a surprise. You’ll just have to wait and see.” Anna grinned at him.

The Valley opened at the tree line, this time. Anna thought it might be for the benefit of those watching through the window (she also thought she might be able to hear Ryder yelling even inside Elsa’s house).

“Show off.” Anna laughed gently nudging his shoulder with her side.

He chuffed in laughter again.

Anna realized that she’d never seen him so giddy. He had laughed at her before when he was a bear, sure. But she could see his joy in the way that he practically pranced through the opening of the valley, and it made her heart swell.

The entrance had barely closed behind them when Bulda rolled right up to their feet, her dark eyes big and wide.

“Kristoff! Anna! Are you… are you?”

“Yep!” Anna grinned. “I’m here to break Kristoff’s enchantment!”

“I knew it!” Bulda gave her a nearly literal bone crushing hug. “Oh, I just knew that it was fate when you fell in the Valley! I knew it was the best kind of magic.”

“Oh, and what’s that?” Anna asked.

“That special magic that brings two people who are destined to be together across one another’s path! It doesn’t happen often, but it’s my _favorite_ type! Kristoff, I’m so happy for you!”

She proceeded to climb on Kristoff’s back and give him a massive hug.

“Oh, my boy!” She cried. “I always knew this day would come!”

Kristoff gave a somewhat annoyed huff, but Anna could tell that really, deep down he was pleased to have his adopted mother be so thrilled.

He stood on his haunches suddenly, and Anna knew that mean the was about to change.

The sky flashed brilliantly for a moment.

Then Kristoff was there before her again.

“Is Anna going to break Kristoff’s enchantment?” A few other littler trolls came rolling forward.

“Are Anna and Kristoff coming to get married?”

“What’s going on? Did Anna bring her cookies?”

“Yes, yes, and no.” Kristoff answered, walking forward and scooping up one of the trolls.

Anna finally caught a glimpse of his ass.

Another one of those matches lit and she had to remind herself that she would very much be getting the opportunity to enjoy it in a very short while.

_‘So soon… so, so soon.’_

*****

“Whoaw.” Kristoff sighed when he saw her.

Anna giggled, blushing a bit underneath such simple praise.

The troll women had whisked Anna away to prepare her for the ceremony. It was there that she’d donned Yelena’s traditional wedding dress, then the troll women had bedecked her in various jewels and a moss cape, with a crown.

“You look pretty impressive, yourself.” She grinned.

He was wearing a cape of his own, and a crown, but he wasn’t nearly as frivolous looking. He was wearing the simple pants and sweater she’d been saving for him and he’d asked her to bring underneath.

It was simple, but he looked like a King to her.

“I feel remarkably underdressed compared to you… Anna, you look so beautiful.”

He closed the distance between them and gently caught her chin between his forefinger and thumb so he could look steadfastly at her face.

“Well I got all dressed up just for you.” She whispered softly, loving the feel of his fingertips. “So I’m glad you like it.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked looking at her carefully, judging each twitch of her face, searching for any sign of hesitation.

“Yes.” She grinned. “I'm absolutely certain. Are you?”

"I am a bit worried I'm holding you back, honestly."

"Kristoff, if you say anything like that again I swear I'm going to-"

“Alright, alright," He chuckled. "Then I'm absolutely certain, too. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

“I could say the same.” Anna gave him a gentle smile.

His kiss was feather light. Barely a brush on her own lips, but all the same she counted it as one of her favorites.

She supposed that each kiss would be her new favorite, though.

“So, come on you two!” Bulda’s voice broke their moment. “Let’s get you married, and then you can kiss as much as you’d like!”

*****

The ceremony was strange in Anna’s opinion. Or at least unlike any wedding she’d ever been to before. Though, she supposed that was to be expected, as she had never been to a wedding that was performed by trolls.

Kristoff and Anna each started on either side of the Valley, and with each step the took towards one another they had to repeat strange and ancient words as prompted. While Anna couldn’t understand them, they felt weighty and powerful.

Finally, after what felt like hours, they were standing directly in front of one another. Both grinning widely and trying not to break the solemnity of the occasion by jumping into one another’s arms.

They were then told to step into a small pit that the trolls had dug, complete with an intricately decorated archway above it.

They repeated a few more words together, then were given two halves of a small crystal.

Kristoff then showed her how they were to intertwine their arms and connect the stone, which glowed faintly.

“You may now kiss your bride, Kristoff!” The troll (Anna could tell it was Logi as she had several sketches of him doing funny faces) who had been officiating the whole ceremony in a very sagacious voice, dropped the severe tone to squeal the last words.

Kristoff breathed a quick happy breath, then reached down and claimed her lips as his own.

*****

“What were we saying?” Anna asked him, as they made their way to exit the Valley, the trolls waving tearfully at their backs. “When we were walking towards each other. What were we saying? And what language was that?”

“I don’t really know what the language is if I’m honest. It’s older than time, I think.” Kristoff shrugged. “I don’t exactly speak it, but I do kind of understand it.”

“Oh?” She said, not even watching the Valley open at the small clearing in front of his cabin.

“Essentially we were saying how our paths have now diverged from our own lives to become a part of each other. That our true direction is to one another. That we are one another’s ‘True North’ so to speak.”

“That’s beautiful.” Anna sighed.

“There were also a few things about being together until we were in our graves… but that’s a bit morbid.”

“It is just a bit, but it’s also kind of romantic. The equivalent of ‘until death do us part’.” Anna laughed.

“Yes.” Kristoff chuckled.

“And what is that crystal?”

“I have to take this with me to Ahtohallan.” Kristoff said gripping it tightly in his hand, then placing it in the pocket of his pants. “It’s a representation of how our hearts have been joined as one. It’s how the enchantment is broken.”

They were nearly to the door of his cabin when Anna found herself shivering. It was mostly from the temperature, though she couldn’t deny there was a bit of anticipation weaved in. Her coat overtop her wedding dress was helping a little, but cold air was blowing directly up the bottom of the dress and she could hardly feel her toes in the little flats she'd insisted on wearing.

“Are you cold?” Kristoff asked, his voice full of concern.

“Just a little.” Anna nodded. “This dress is meant for summer.”

“Your teeth are chattering!”

He quickly put his arm around her shoulders, then after a few more steps seemed to decide that wasn’t enough and leaned down and swept her up underneath her knees and into his arms.

She felt a new match flicker brightly, dancing happily in her chest.

“Hey!” She giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck automatically. “What are you doing?”

“Well I have to carry you over the threshold, don’t I?”

“What a ridiculously cliché thing to do.” Anna laughed, but she by no means wanted him to stop.

He kicked his door open, but rather than set her down, he walked over to his heater and flicked it on. Still without releasing her, he walked into the little kitchen and turned on the kettle.

“Aren’t you going to put me down now?”

“Nope.” He grinned, looking at her. “I’m going to keep holding onto you forever.”

“You’ve become remarkably cheesy, you know.” Anna gave a roll of her eyes, but she felt a little rush of warmth and it had nothing to do with the heater. “But, you’ll have to set me down at some point. The sun will rise eventually.”

She hadn’t intended for her words to be sobering, but they were.

“Hmm.” Kristoff nodded, his face falling a bit.

“Hey.” She reached out and gently touched his cheek, savoring the feeling of his beard against her palm. “Don’t be sad.”

“I’m going to be gone for a whole year.” He sighed and leaned his forehead up against hers.

“Don’t think about that just yet.” She whispered. “Think about the fact that we just got married!”

“We did just do that, didn’t we?” He gave her a small smile, though his eyes still seemed downcast.

“Mhmm. We just got married by a bunch of trolls.” Anna leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss.

“I bet you never expected your wedding to be quite like that.”

“Nope.” Anna giggled. “I never would have imagined it in a million years. But it was perfect… and now I’m your wife.”

“Mhmm.” Kristoff slowly let her feet slide to the floor and gazed at her, his eyes growing a bit darker with longing.

“And we’re all alone finally.” Anna whispered, holding his eye contact.

“Mhmm.” He hummed again.

“And we have hours and hours and hours before the sun rises.” She slowly slid her fingers down his chest.

He caught her wrists before her hands went too low.

“Before we… before we get too distracted, I want to give you something.”

“Give me something?” Anna cocked her head to the side in surprise.

Kristoff nodded, leaving to scale the ladder to his loft with a practiced ease.

It was beginning to warm in his cabin already, so Anna peeled off her coat and laid it over the back of one of his kitchen chairs. The kettle began to rumble, so she found two mugs, then began opening his cupboards to find his hot chocolate.

“I like seeing you here.”

His voice didn’t startle her exactly, but she hadn’t realized he had been watching her.

“Oh, yeah?” She grinned up at him from his position in the loft.

“Mhmm.” He nodded, coming back down the ladder. “I like it that you’re making yourself at home.”

“Well it is my home now. You married me. What’s yours is mine.” Anna gave him a challenging grin.

He chuckled, coming up behind her, opening a cupboard she had just closed and pulling out the hot chocolate from the top shelf where she had been unable to reach (or even really see) before.

“I’ll probably have to rearrange a few things while your gone.” She looked up at him a bit apologetically. “I hope that’s okay?”

“Of course, it is.” He chuckled, dropping a quick kiss to her forehead.

Then, before she could finish preparing their drinks, he gently tugged at her fingers, and placed a cold piece of metal against her hand.

“What’s this?” Anna turned over her palm and opened it.

A very simple gold band lay there.

There was nothing special or ornate about it, and it looked like it would probably be much too large for her fingers, but it was pretty, nonetheless.

“This was my mother’s… My real mother’s.” Kristoff told her softly. “Her name was Katja and she was… well she was wonderful and I'm sure she would love you. I want you to have it now.”

“Kristoff.” Anna whispered softly, gently running her finger overtop the surface.

“It’s probably too big, because you have such dainty fingers. You can go get it resized if you want… but it’s one of the few things I have left of her… and I just… I would like it if you could wear it.”

She felt tears prick at her eyes.

“Thank you.” She closed her hand around it tightly. “I’ll treasure this always.”

Without another word he leaned down kissed her.

Anna wrapped her arms around his neck and let all her matches consume her once again.

*****


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marital coitus ahead. Rating is M  
> I TOLD YOU ALL I WAS GONNA DO IT.

Things were not slowing down this time, Anna had determined. Nobody was there to try and stop them. They were all alone, and they had hours to go before the sun was even going to think of rising.

They were married now.

Anna placed the ring Kristoff had just given her carefully on the counter before opening her mouth fully against his.

She then began tugging at his sweater, and off it came. Just like magic.

She kicked off her shoes, leaving them haphazardly lying across the floor as she pulled him backwards towards his couch.

Then his fingers were carefully undoing the red sash around her waist.

“You look so beautiful in this, by the way.” His voice was low. “Like a goddess. I almost don’t want to take it off you.”

“If you don’t get this off me right now- I will… I’m gonna-” Her threats were empty, and unfinished due to the fact that his lips kept finding new places to perch.

Like the underside of her jaw.

Then her earlobe.

“Oh yeah? What are you going to do to me?” Kristoff chuckled, gently kissing the spot just below her ear as he kept purposefully undoing the knots of her sash.

“Just hurry up and get it _off_.” She huffed.

“No need to rush.” He chuckled, slowing his fingers, despite her demands.

“Kristoff.” She breathed as his lips gently brushed along her throat. “You already know I’m not patient.”

“I’m enjoying making you fidget.” He chuckled, his lips finding her collarbone which was only just visible at the top of her wedding dress.

She was having a hard time standing up straight, and she pulled her fingers through his hair to help hold her upright.

When he finally finished with the sash, and most certainly left several marks on her along the way, he gently laid the fabric across the back of his couch.

Anna was about to pull the gown up over her head while he was distracted but suddenly a realization that struck her to the core and filled her with dread made her stop.

“Kristoff!” She looked at him in horror.

“Anna, what? What’s wrong?”

“I’m not a virgin!”

“I-“ He paused and gave her a confused look. “I know?”

“You do?” Anna looked at him in surprise.

“You said you were engaged for three years… This is the 21st century. I just assumed. Besides, what man in right mind would be able to keep his hands off you for that long?”

“I…” Anna blushed. “Well you would be surprised at how little it happened, but…”

Kristoff scowled and muttered something under his breath. While Anna’s Norwegian had improved very little since she had moved, she could tell he was using foul language to describe her ex.

“But…” Anna continued, not wanting to dwell on the subject of someone who she was rapidly on her way to forgetting completely, “But these things… you know breaking of enchantments and stuff. Don’t I need to be… I don’t know, pure or something?”

“Pure?” He looked a bit perplexed. “Who you were with before doesn’t affect what we have… That’s… I don’t know, I don’t like that word because you are pure to me, regardless. But no, you don’t have to be a virgin for this to work. That would be… well that would be a bit ridiculous, frankly. And I would have said something about that before. Whatever gave you that idea?”

“I don’t know…” She blushed a bit and shrugged. “I was just suddenly worried that it might have an effect on whether or not this whole thing would work. It’s in all those old movies and books and stuff. The ‘blood of a virgin’ is a reoccurring thing and I just suddenly worried...”

“No.” Kristoff chuckled, reaching out to run his hands along the backs of her arms and pull her a bit closer. “I… Um. I mean, I’m not a virgin either.”

“You’re not?” Anna felt her eyebrows disappear in surprise.

“Good to know that my kisses have been leaving you with the impression that I am.” Kristoff laughed at her surprise.

“No! You’re a great kisser! The best I’ve had actually, I just… You are tucked away up here, and you were so reluctant to even let me near you in the first place…”

“I mean… it was a long time ago. Like 9 years now? So, I am hardly what you could call experienced…” He suddenly looked remarkably embarrassed and trailed off.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Anna gave him a soft smile. “Like you said, who you were with before doesn’t affect what we have now.”

“I just don’t want you to think that I’ve been hunting around for someone to break my enchantment. That’s not what happened at all!”

“I didn’t think that.” Anna chuckled.

“It was hardly what you could even call a relationship. She was just a Sami girl passing through. Honestly, it didn’t really mean anything. I was 18… and I was just… really lonely.” He finished with a shrug.

Anna reached up to take his face in her hands, her heart aching at his words, and made him look into her eyes.

“Kristoff.” She whispered, running her thumb along his beard. “I promise you, once you get back from Ahtohallan, you are never going to be lonely again. I’m going to be here. Probably annoying the hell out of you.”

This made Kristoff chuckle, and he caught her hand against his cheek and shifted her palm over to his lips so he could kiss it.

“Now.” Anna sighed into the intimate gesture. “I believe you promised to touch me everywhere?”

“I did, didn’t I?” He grinned a bit.

“Mhmm.” Anna giggled. “Now, get to work.”

She raised her arms up over her head so Kristoff could help her out of her gown.

The feeling of the fabric slipping up over her head, revealing all her skin (save the skimpy blue lace bra and underwear she’d picked out especially for the occasion) to him made her nervously bite her lip.

His eyes went wide, and he merely tossed the dress to the side, stepping back a bit so he could look at her fully.

“Wow.” He breathed.

“I uh… I just bought this today.” Anna nervously plucked at the little pink bow in between her breasts.

“When did you have the time?” Kristoff gave a soft laugh.

“I didn’t really get much sleep if I’m honest.” She gave him a guilty grin. “It’s nothing extravagant, as there isn’t really a great lingerie section in any of the shops in town, but I found this, and I thought it was cute. Which, I suppose I should have got something black, that would have been sexier… But I needed something blue, for that old rhyme and then I figured it would double as something new, too. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for my old and borrowed pieces, but then Yelena let me borrow her dress, so it worked out great.”

“What are you talking about?” His eyes flickered up to her face for a moment, though she noticed they kept returning to her body, taking in every little bit of her.

She realized she had been rambling because she was nervous about what he was going to think.

Though she couldn’t imagine why. If the way Kristoff was looking at her was any indication as to how he felt, she really had nothing to worry about.

“You know that old wedding poem?” Anna explained, bouncing on the edges of her toes a bit, and she noticed his eyes followed her movements carefully. “Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. It’s meant to help give you a happy marriage… or at least I think that’s what it’s meant to do.”

“I’ve never heard that before.” He shook his head, with a small smirk, stepping a bit closer to her.

“Really?” Anna looked at him in disbelief. “Huh. Maybe it’s just a weird American thing?”

“Well I’m grateful for it because this,” he tentatively reached forward to run the backs of his fingers along her bra straps, “looks amazing. I’m sure it’s all I’m going to dream about when I’m at Ahtohallan.”

She sucked in a quick breath at the feeling of his skin on hers.

“But really, I want to see you out of it.” He murmured, flicking his gaze up to hers carefully. “If that’s okay?”

Anna merely nodded, reaching behind her slowly and undoing the hooks on her bra.

It was still ever so slightly chilly in his cabin, so her nipples hardened against the draft when she shrugged her straps off her shoulders and let the fabric fall away.

Kristoff made an odd, slightly strangled noise.

“Are you okay?” Anna giggled, too proud of the way she was making him react to feel shy anymore.

“Mhmm. Yep. I’m fine. Great.” He nodded quickly and cleared his throat with a cough.

“So, are you going to make good on that promise to touch me or are you just going to stare?” She asked ruefully.

He raised an eyebrow and shot her a brief look.

“Give a man a moment to admire his wife, won’t you?”

Anna reached forward caught his hand and put it to her chest in one fast move that left him a bit wide eyed.

It was a natural movement for him to slide his hand over slightly and palm her left breast. The feeling of his warm hands against her made Anna moan, heat coiling in her stomach quickly.

“Kris.” She sighed.

He stepped up closer to her, pressing his mouth into hers, open and hot, at the same time he rolled her nipple in his fingers.

She gave a desperate whine, letting her hands run up his chest to wrap around his neck and pull his head down closer so she could deepen their kiss even more.

His other arm went around her, his wide hands skating against the bare skin of her back, and gently tangling in her hair, then sliding back down until he gently cupped her ass. He pulled her tight against him.

She let her eyes flutter open in surprise when she felt just how hard he already was against her stomach.

“Your pants.” She panted, reaching down to undo his fly. “Off.”

He obeyed, helping her jerk them down. In so doing, he lost his balance and stumbled backwards onto his couch.

Anna used this to her advantage and quickly straddled his lap.

He used her new height to lean his head forward and press kisses in between her breasts. Then his mouth moved over to her right nipple before she even had time to think, and his hands caught the backs of her thighs.

“Oh!” She gasped in surprise, settling fully against him, so that she could feel the firm ridge of his erection with nothing to separate her from it except the flimsy material of her panties, and his boxer breifs.

She gripped his shoulders tightly, using them for balance as she began to roll her hips into him.

Kristoff let out a low groan against her breast, and he flicked his tongue in a remarkably wicked way in retaliation.

His hands slid up to grip her ass tightly as she continued to grind into him, dying for some friction.

“You still haven’t touched me everywhere.” She teased, her words coming out in breathy pants.

He growled in challenge, letting go of her backside to let his fingers trace back down her thighs, her calves, then back up her shins. He let the pads of his fingers drag lazily in circles just above her knees for a moment.

Then he slid his hands gently up the insides of her thighs until she was gasping, desperate for him to reach that pivotal point.

He teased her though and traced the hem of her underwear back out to her hips, then trekked up her sides, all the while his mouth still at her breast.

“Kristoff.” She huffed impatiently, grinding against him more firmly. “Touch me.”

He peeked up from his position against her chest, not removing his mouth from her breast and gave her a mischievous grin.

“Kristoff.” She whined.

“I’m busy with this.” He broke away from her slowly, his left hand coming up to gently pinch her nipple.

“Kris-“ She started to demand, but he interrupted her, his right hand slipping quickly down her stomach and dipping underneath the hem of her underwear, right where she needed his fingers to be. “Oh!”

“Stop rushing me so much.” He teased, his fingers going in firm circles. “I’ll do exactly what I said.”

“Oh!” Her gasp was really more of a scream and she raised up on her knees to rock into his hand.

She went to kiss him but was surprised at the look on his face.

It wasn’t longing, or lust exactly, though that was muddled in, but the sloppy smile on his face told her that he was having the time of his life as he watched her enjoy his ministrations.

She realized that more than anything in this world she wanted him to be a part of her in a very biblical sense.

“Kristoff, I need you, and I need you now.” Her voice was low. “I’m a Queen now, you have to do what I say.”

“Oh?” Kristoff looked thoroughly amused.

“Yes. You’re the King of the Forest. I married you. Therefore, I am the Queen.” She gave a gasp as he dipped one of his fingers inside her. “And I need _you_ now.”

“What if I’m not done touching?” He reached forward to kiss her neck, as he gently pumped his finger inside her.

“Now, Kris.” She panted, rocking into his digits desperately. “I need you right now. I want to cum with you.”

“Anything for her majesty.” He grinned, removing his fingers and slipping off her underwear as he stood her up.

How she had the strength to rest her weight on her own two feet for a moment, she wasn’t quite sure.

He yanked his boxers off quickly, then pulled her back into his arms.

Anna’s hand went instinctually to his freed erection, marveling over its size, and pumping it in her hand carefully.

He hissed and let his eyes slide shut, muttering several things in Norwegian that Anna knew were expletives.

“Gods, Anna.” He sighed, his hips bucking at her movements. “If you want me to last at all you’re going to have to stop that.”

Anna felt a shiver of pride, but then let him turn her and press her back into the couch cushions.

He lined himself up with her entrance.

“Are you ready?” He asked, his face slightly tentative now that they were coming down to the real deal.

“Mhmm.” Anna nodded eagerly.

Then he pressed into her and she was quite sure she’d forgotten what her name was.

It was Anna, that’s right.

And Kristoff was the one making her feel like she was a goddess. Kristoff her husband.

“Ohmygod.” She gasped, grasping ahold of his shoulders tightly, her fingers digging into his back.

“Are you okay?” He paused, obviously worried, and his voice was low in her ear.

“Yeah,” she assured him. “Keep going.”

He began to move inside her at a slow and steady pace, and she rolled her hips up to meet him.

“You feel so good, Anna.” He grumbled into her shoulder, then picked up his head so he could look into her eyes. “You are so amazing. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She whispered.

Anna blushed, reveling in their unbroken eye contact, giving him the pleasure of little wanton gasps when he would meet her with a thrust.

For want of something to do with her hands she gently pinched her own nipples, twisting underneath the pressure, and Kristoff let out a low groan at the sight, picking up speed.

He shifted up slightly, catching her leg and lifting it a bit so he could hit a new place inside her and her little gasps turned into little screams.

“Oh! Harder, Kristoff.” She begged.

He complied with the added bonus of a bit more speed.

That inferno that had been burning inside her since the moment he had first kissed her, burned so brightly now that she thought he must be catching fire, too.

It just kept building, and building, and building, until suddenly it was too much.

“Kris!” She shrieked. “I’m going… I’m going to!”

She didn’t get to complete her sentence, because his lips came down against hers.

That was all she needed.

His lips against hers were what did her in.

Her orgasm washed over her and her legs clamped him tightly against her.

The tightening of her own walls sent him over the edge, and she felt him let out a growl and finish, collapsing against her.

They lay there, panting, trying to catch their breath for a good long while.

Anna took a moment to enjoy the feeling of him still within her, covered by his body, and thoroughly warm inside and out.

She’d never felt so at peace before.

It made her sleepy.

“Oh no,” she whispered to him softly. “I’m tired now.”

Kristoff chuckled.

“Does that mean I did a good job?”

“You bet it does.” She gave him a slow, languorous kiss. “I can hardly wait to do it again.”

“Me either.” He slipped from within her and adjusted them, so she was tucked against his chest, reaching blindly for a blanket that was over the back of his couch to cover them both.

“Oh, we never got to enjoy our cocoa earlier!” Anna lamented. “It’s probably for the best though. I would have undoubtedly spilled it on that white dress.”

“Want met to go make some?” He asked.

“No not yet. Cuddle with me for a bit.”

“Of course.” He pressed a kiss into her hair.

“You’re just so warm and cozy.” She nuzzled her nose into his neck, feeling her eyes slip shut in contentment. “And you smell so nice. I think that’s when I knew I loved you. When I realized you smelled so nice.”

“Oh really?” Kristoff’s laugh made her vibrate.

“Yep. When did you know you loved me?”

“I… I don’t really know.”

“You gotta say. I said.” She insisted, and she was having trouble opening her eyes to look at him.

“I think it was the moment you first fell into the Valley and said; ‘Oh great, I must be dead’.”

“Really?” Anna giggled.

“Yeah. I think I knew you were going to steal my heart right then and there. It was already too late for me.”

“That’s so sweet.” She murmured. “Kris, don’t let me fall asleep please. I want to be with you.”

“You’re tired, though.”

“Please don’t let me go to sleep.”

But it was already too late. Sleep was claiming her.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to issue a formal apology to Liv (on ao3 as ahtohallan_calling - If you haven't read her stuff RUN, do not walk! RUN to go read it!).  
> I told her I wouldn't write a very long goodbye because I couldn't handle the sadness of it... Then I went ahead and did it anyway. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! (?)

Anna had never in her life had the feeling that she should be awake while she was sleeping. She usually slept so hard a train could bowl right through her room and she wouldn’t rouse.

Yet, her eyes startled open. There was something important she was missing.

For the briefest moment she wasn’t sure where she was.

Then she realized she was in Kristoff’s cabin, on his couch, and he wasn’t there with her.

She sat up quickly, the blanket that had been lovingly tucked around her slipping off her shoulders leaving her exposed to a chilly draft.

“Kristoff?” She called.

There wasn’t an answer.

Anna scrambled to her feet, getting a bit tangled in the blanket as she tried to keep it around her.

“Kristoff!” She cried out.

Fear enveloped her so fast she thought she might be drowning in its icy clutches.

He couldn’t be gone already. No, he couldn’t! It was still dark outside! He couldn’t be gone!

The door to the cabin opened, and in walked Kristoff, larger than life, and Anna instantly noticed he’d shaved. How long had she been asleep?

“Anna?” He looked so worried. “What’s wrong?”

It felt so silly, but she was suddenly overwhelmed, and tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. She tried to keep them at bay, but then she choked on a little sob that she was trying to hold in, and realized it was no use.

“Anna what is it?” Kristoff rushed to her, wrapping his arms around her.

“I thought you were gone.” She whimpered.

“What? No! I wouldn’t leave without telling you goodbye.” He insisted, running his hand over her hair. “Besides, it’s only 2:00 in the morning. We’ve got a while before I have to go. The sun doesn’t rise until almost 10 AM. Hey, hey, hey, don’t cry!”

“Why did you let me go to sleep?” Her voice came out in a strangled wail against his chest.

“You were so tired.” He gave her a gentle squeeze. “Besides it was nice to watch you be so peaceful for a little bit.”

“But I told you not to let me.” Anna gave a dramatic sniffle. “I wanted to be with you all night.”

“Well you can be with me now that you’ve had a little rest. Besides. It gave me a chance to tidy up a few things outside, check on the herd, all of that.”

Anna mumbled begrudging words into his chest.

“Trust me, Anna. It’s okay.” He whispered into her hair. “It was a gift to have you sleep beside me at least once before I’m gone…”

He trailed off, rubbing his hands up and down her back, trying to comfort her.

Neither of them seemed to want to discuss that there was a very real clock that was ticking down.

And then he would be gone for an entire year.

“You shaved.” Anna finally said.

“Yeah. It’ll get pretty long, so I thought it’d best if I had a clean slate.”

“Hmm.” Anna hummed, reaching up to slide her hand along his smooth cheek, the blanket around her shoulders slipping to reveal a bit of her naked chest.

“You didn’t get dressed I see.” Kristoff’s eyes lit up.

“Oh, damn it! I just realized that I left my warm clothes in the Valley! Do not forget to teach me how to call it open, because I will not go without those pants for a year, they’re my favorites. Oh and my boots! They’re the best ones I own. Ugh, I can’t believe I did that. I guess today I’ll have to wear something of yours when I go with you to the sea.”

“You’re going to go with me?” He pulled back a bit in surprise.

“Of course, I am.” Anna insisted. “What a ridiculous question.”

She could tell he was touched.

“Well, you’re more than welcome to my meager wardrobe. Seeing you in my clothes is… well it will give me so much to think about while I’m gone.” He rumbled, giving her a brief squeeze and making her catch her breath.

“That does it for you, huh?” Anna grinned. “I had a sneaking suspicion that you liked it when I was wearing your sweater, but I didn’t want to assume.”

“Mmm.” He hummed, leaning down to kiss her. “I had a feeling you were wearing it on purpose. Tormenting me with dreams of your perfect freckled legs.”

He slid his hand under the blanket to gently graze her thigh and she giggled.

“I would never do such a thing.” Anna scoffed.

“Oh, I’m sure.” Kristoff murmured kissing her again.

Anna let her blanket fall away.

*****

“So, what exactly does this crystal thingy do?” Anna fiddled with the stone as she lay across his bare torso.

Kristoff had fashioned a necklace out of a long strip of leather while she was sleeping and the crystal now sat low on his chest, rising and falling with his every breath. If Anna wasn’t mistaken, it was thrumming lightly in time with their hearts.

He had also done the same for the wedding ring he’d given her, (“That way you can wear it until you get it resized.”) and she enjoyed the feel of it, warm now, lying against her breastbone.

“It’s a representation of our bond.” He told her, gently running his fingers through her hair and tracing lazy circles on her back. “I don’t know exactly how it works, just like I don’t understand how most of this stuff works… but I’m pretty sure it’s our love that makes it glow like that? That’s what changes me back. It protects me as I transform, keeps me warm, eliminates my need for food, or to wake.”

“And what does the… consummation have to do with it?” Anna felt silly for blushing at the word because they’d already ‘consummated’ things several times.

“It solidifies the bond. See, right there? Where the crystal was joined together? It’s solid now.”

“Hmm.” Anna hummed looking at it closely. “What happens if it doesn’t glow?”

“I… My transformation doesn’t complete properly. I… I would probably wake and then… die.”

“Oh.” Anna whispered softly.

“Listen… if it stops glowing I would understand, and I hope you know I wouldn’t hold it against you-“

“It’s not going to stop glowing!” Anna said looking at him firmly. “Okay?”

“Okay.” He smiled and gave her a soft kiss.

Anna closed her hand around it tightly willing it to glow brighter, and if she wasn't mistaken, it did.

***** 

They finally got around to their mugs of cocoa and made themselves bowls of oatmeal for breakfast, as it was one of the few things he actually had in his cupboards.

Anna hadn’t quite realized how ravenous she was, but all their physical activity had caused her to work up a real appetite. Kristoff ate nearly as quickly and grinned at her over the table even when he pointed out she had oatmeal stuck on her chin.

After they’d finished eating, Anna was struck by the way he looked, leaned back in his kitchen chair, without a shirt on, just sipping from his mug.

“Do you have pencil and paper?” She asked him.

“Yeah, let me get it-“

“No, don’t move! Just tell me where it is.”

“It’s in that third drawer over there.” He nodded, pointedly not moving a muscle.

She scrambled to get it and slapped it on his counter, quickly drawing out a rough sketch of his form.

“Don’t move an inch…” She hummed, sticking her tongue out as she tried to be sure to get his posing right. “But keep talking to me.”

“What would you like me to talk to you about?” He chuckled.

“What do you want to do when you’re permanently a man?” Anna asked vaguely.

“Well… I’ll get to actually enjoy the daylight… I might purposely get a sunburn.”

“That sounds pleasant.” She hummed in amusement, her pencil moving in a fury.

“Eat something besides fish.”

“I’ll have to teach you how to make a good old-fashioned American cheeseburger.”

“Sounds delicious and very unhealthy.”

“Oh, they are.” Anna grinned, glancing up at him then went back to her paper. “What else?”

“I’ll sleep in a soft bed at nighttime… with you, of course.”

“Mmm.” She smiled.

“And I’ll probably hold your hand a lot.” He commented idly.

“And give me lots of big hugs as promised.” Anna giggled, still looking at her drawing.

“Of course.” He chuckled. “I’d like to travel a little bit too. Not anywhere extravagant or exotic, necessarily. Just… It will be nice to be able to get on a bus, or a train, or a plane and not have to worry about turning into a bear.”

Anna paused what she was doing to look at him fondly.

“We can go wherever you’d like.” She smiled. “Oh! And I can teach you how to drive!”

“Do I _want_ you teaching me to drive?” Kristoff asked raising an eyebrow.

“What, you don’t think I’d be a good driver?” She rolled her eyes, going back to her sketch. “You’ve never even seen me behind the wheel before.”

“I didn’t say that, exactly…”

“Well… if I’m being completely forthright, we should probably get Elsa to teach you.” Anna admitted. “I get easily distracted.”

“Alright.” He chuckled. “Honestly though, I’m just looking forward to working the herd, watching Father Brown or whatever tickles my fancy whenever I want. Just being able to just walk into town when the mood hits me. Maybe getting Sven back from Ryder?”

“He is going to miss you.” Anna commented, smiling a bit sadly.

“Who, Sven or Ryder?”

“Both.” Anna chuckled. “Don’t worry I’ll give Sven plenty of Yelena’s candied carrot cake for you.”

“Thank you” Kristoff smiled.

“What else?” Anna prompted, getting the last of her linework right. “What else are you looking forward to?”

She knew she was going to spend hours and hours perfecting this one piece. Ensuring everything was just right. All things considered, in the space of a year it wouldn’t take up that much of her time, but every moment spent on it would be one moment closer to him being back.

“I just…” Kristoff sighed, his shoulders drooping slightly, and Anna coughed pointedly causing him to resume his position. “I just can hardly wait to live a normal little life. Have a family.”

Anna felt her cheeks warm when she realized just how involved in that she would be. She finished the outline she was doing, put down her pencil then hurried over to sit in his lap.

“Well I can hardly wait either.” She grinned, kissing the underside of his jaw. “Also, I can hardly wait for your beard to grow back.”

“You aren’t fond of the bottom half of my face, then?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, I’m very fond of it! It’s my favorite face.” She patted his cheek affectionately. “I just think the beard is incredibly sexy.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. If you’d had a beard the first time I saw you this process would have happened a lot quicker.” She nodded.

He laughed, but then grew quiet after a moment.

“Do you think…” Kristoff said slowly. “Do you think you’re ever going to wake up and realize just how crazy this is and regret doing it?”

It was a valid question, but one Anna knew the answer to instantly.

“No.” She shook her head. “No, I won’t.”

“If you do… will you let me know?” Kristoff said, his face sincere. “I won’t be mad. I would rather be a bear again than make you miserable.”

“Kristoff-“

“I would hate for you to feel like you were trapped in a mistake…”

“I’ve been trapped in a mistake before,” Anna said kissing him softly, “I know what that feels like, and this isn’t it.”

***** 

As the dawn crept closer and closer, they grew quieter and quieter.

They spent a long time just holding tight to one another, not speaking a word.

Just gently breathing one another in and wishing they could stay that way forever. Even though neither of them said it she could tell that’s what he was thinking too.

Finally, Kristoff stood.

“It’s time we get ready.”

He didn’t bother with getting redressed, just pulled on his boxers, then he went to find one of his sweaters for Anna to wear and a pair of sweatpants that had drawstrings so she could cinch them up tightly. He helped her put them on.

It was an intimate act, him helping her get dressed slowly. His fingertips lingered on her with every movement. Drinking her in one last time.

“You don’t have proper boots.” He commented as he kneeled on the floor and rolled the bottom of the pant leg up for her, his fingers brushing along her ankles as he did so.

“I was worried about stomping on the edge of Yelena’s dress and getting it muddy. Besides, clunky winter boots with that would have looked funny.” Anna explained.

Kristoff’s huff was a cross between exasperation and amusement.

“Well, promise me you won’t go running around in the snow with these on.”

“I’ll go straight to Elsa’s afterwards and get a proper pair.” She assured him with a salute. “Scout’s honor.”

“Okay.” He nodded. “Wouldn’t want you to lose any precious toes while I’m gone.”

He tickled the bottom of her feet and she giggled.

“Also… I need you to promise me you’ll be careful when you’re up here. No running around at night by yourself.”

“Okay.” Anna chuckled.

“I just… I’ll worry about you if I think you’re up here all by yourself all the time. I mean the worst thing out there is the wolves, and they know where I live and usually avoid the place… but I’m sure as the year wears on and I’m gone they’ll start to get bolder.”

“Don’t worry Kristoff. We’ll look after your herd, I'll make sure Sven stays at Ryder's so he's safe, and I’ll be fine.” She whispered. 

“I just wish I could have said something to the trolls beforehand. There are little things they can do to help…”

“Well I could ask them. How do I call open the Valley though? I need my shoes and clothes back, anyway.”

Kristoff laughed.

“Forget about protective spells and whatnot, you need your shoes.”

She shot him a look.

“It’s fairly simple.” He said. “You have to focus on it, in your mind’s eye envision it, then picture the trolls and ask them if you can come in.”

“That’s it?” Anna was surprised.

“Mhmm.” He nodded, finishing rolling her other pant leg.

“Well that’s easy. Why’d you wait so long to tell me?”

“We were busy with other things.” He raised an eyebrow. “And it was hard to tell you while I was a bear.”

“Right.” She snickered.

Then they both fell quiet again.

Kristoff from his position on the floor he wrapped his arms around her waist tightly and rested his head against her stomach. Anna grabbed hold of his head snugly, tracing her fingers through his hair.

“I love you so much, Anna.” He whispered.

“I love you, too.” She replied, the words not feeling like they were quite enough.

It was strange, but Anna could almost sense the sun coming closer and closer to breaking the over the horizon. The sky was beginning to change soft colors.

“It’s only a year anyway.” She said still holding onto him tightly. “January always goes by in a blur. Then February is the shortest month of they year. March will come and go, then suddenly it’ll be April, then May. June is my favorite month because that’s when my birthday is. Then July always goes by fast. Then August, September, and then October! We’ll get to celebrate Halloween! Then before you know it November will be over, and then we’ll head into December, and on the Solstice I’ll rent a boat and go get you. Easy peasy.”

She thought saying all the months out loud might make it feel like less time, but it only made it worse, and she was crying by the end.

Kristoff stood then, brushing her tears from her cheeks with his thumbs.

“It’ll go by in the blink of an eye.” He assured her.

“Then we’ll get to be together all the time.” Anna nodded.

“Yep. I’ll get to annoy the hell out of you.” He gave her a smirk.

His precious, precious smirk.

“Mhmm.” She could feel her chin quivering.

“I’m about to shift.” He said softly.

“Okay.” She managed to choke out.

He found her coat and put it over her shoulders. Then he stripped away his boxers, giving her one last good look at him, so magnificently comfortable in his own skin, and so beautiful.

She tried to make sure and take in every single detail, committing it to memory. She knew she wouldn’t be able to forget, but still, she wanted to be sure.

He then took her hand and walked to the door.

She saw Kristoff shiver harshly against the cold air the moment they stepped outside and it made her heart pang in her chest. Isn’t that how this had all started? The trolls were just protecting him from the cold.

She found she couldn’t be angry at them. A year of waiting would be worth it for all the years he’d been kept alive, sheltered by a bear’s form.

“I love you.” He turned suddenly and told her.

Then before she could do anything else, he pulled her in for one last kiss.

“Anna,” He whispered desperately against her lips, “thank you.”

Then his eyebrows drew together, and he gave a grunt of discomfort.

“Kristoff!” She gasped, reaching out her hand hoping to touch his chest one last time.

But he was a bear already.

*****

Kristoff walked slowly down the mountain. Anna got the feeling that maybe he was dragging it out, trying to spend as much time with her as possible.

She wasn’t complaining.

Anna wrapped her arms around his neck tightly and buried her face in his fur as she rode on his back. She knew he could feel her crying, and she tried to stop the tears, but they kept coming despite her best efforts to remain strong.

It was the noise of waves crashing against the seashore made her lift her head finally.

She gave a firm sniff and wiped her eyes, determining that the last thing he saw of her would not be her sniveling.

Kristoff walked slowly up to the waterfront, his paws dragging a bit as he did so, and when he finally stopped Anna hopped off his back.

“So! I’ll need to be at Ahtohallan right as the sun sets on the next solstice, right?” She said, confirming the details that he’d told her the day prior.

Kristoff nodded his head.

“And I’ll be sure to bring you warm clothes.” She wasn’t looking him in they eye.

Instead she busied herself with combing down his fur (for what reason, she had no idea, he was about to be swimming in an icy sea), and checking that the crystal tied around his neck was firmly in place, tying one additional knot around it (the idea of it falling off as he swam terrified her).

Kristoff nodded his head.

“Well okay. See you then.” Anna gave him her best smile.

That was until she looked up into his eyes and she faltered a bit.

The look of pure agony and longing in those honey colored eyes was enough to reduce her heart to nothing but a pile of ash.

“It’s going to be okay. Like you said, it’ll go by in the blink of an eye!” She whispered the words, trying desperately not to cry again, but not really succeeding.

Kristoff snuffled at her cheeks, doing his best to wipe her tears, and the cold of his nose made her laugh a bit.

“Now go on.” Anna insisted, knowing if she dragged this out any longer she wouldn't be able to bear it. “Ahotohallan is waiting for you.”

Kristoff gave a low rumble.

Then he leaned his head over her shoulder, pulling her tight into him, one of his great big paws laying across the small of her back.

Anna threw her arms around his neck one last time gripping him tighter than necessary.

“My last literal bear hug.” She chuckled and swiped away her tears as she pulled away. “Now go.”

He nodded, giving her cheek one more rub with his nose before turning and walking into the sea.

“I love you!” She shouted, realizing she’d forgotten to say it one last time, and she thought she saw him turn his head as he swam and call out to her, but she couldn’t be sure because of noise of the waves.

Anna watched the Great White Bear swim away until he was long out of sight.

She knew she had promised to go straight to Elsa’s and put on better shoes so her feet wouldn’t freeze.

But she stayed rooted to the spot for a long while, letting the cold seep into her bones, clutching the ring he’d given her that was tied around her neck.

*****


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a real fic guys :D 
> 
> Thanks to all you WONDERFUL people who have encouraged me through this whole ordeal. You have NO idea what you all mean to me and what you've done for my little writer heart!! <3<3<3

\---ONE YEAR LATER---

Anna had learned how to man a small fishing boat. She’d spent a lot of time practicing in the harbors, and Mattias had helped her quite a bit, as his father used to be a fisherman. Ryder tried helping too, but really, he just made a mess of things, so he was merely there for entertainment.

But she was confident enough in her own skill now that she wasn’t worried as she skipped over the waves, heading due North.

She’d already gone out to Ahtohallan twice. It had been Bulda who had suggested she go out a few times as practice, to make sure she felt confident about where she was going (Anna had a small feeling that Bulda was a bit worried, and frankly so was she).

Elsa had gone with her, not only dying to see Ahtohallan in person, but also desperate to help her sister in any way possible, as the year had been very long indeed.

Anna never set foot on the glacier though, terrified of what that might do to Kristoff’s enchantment if she did. But she’d made sure she knew exactly how long it would take her to get to Ahtohallan. There was no way she was going to risk Kristoff waking up a naked man and shivering to death on an iceberg because she hadn’t timed things out correctly.

She’d been especially careful when scouting it out, knowing that icebergs were much bigger underneath the water than they were above it (she’d watched Titanic several times over the last year, despite her sister’s advisement against making herself cry and feeling sorry for herself, so she knew her stuff).

Luckily the shallow bottom of her boat made it hard to hit anything, and Elsa had helped her spot a little cove that was wide and deep enough for her to steer her little vessel in and drop anchor. Almost as if it were designed for that very purpose.

The sun kept steadily moving lower and lower in the sky and she opened up the boat’s throttle a bit more, wondering which emotion she felt more, excitement or terror.

What if it hadn’t worked?

Not a day had gone by where she hadn’t thought of him and not a night had passed that she hadn’t dreamt of his beautiful brown eyes, so she had no doubt that his crystal had been glowing the whole time…

And there were moments when she’d felt so _sure_ he was there with her…

But what if it hadn’t worked?

What if none of this had worked at all and he was long dead?

Ahtohallan kept looming closer and closer as the sky began to change into brilliant oranges and reds as the sun began to bid the world farewell.

She steered her boat into the little cove a bit haphazardly, completely disregarding any and all safety measures she should have been taking.

The sun dipped below the horizon and then a few moments later the moon rose.

As Anna dropped anchor there was a brilliant flash of light as Ahtohallan lit up the sky, it’s colors magnificent.

She could have imagined it, but she thought she heard an ethereal call as it did.

It startled her, as Ahtohallan wasn't due to 'sing' for a few more nights. So maybe, just maybe it had worked after all?

She stood, puzzling at the sky for a moment. Then she remembered exactly what she was there for, and snatched up Kristoff’s clothes and boots, and hopped off the boat, stepping out onto the icy surface of Ahtohallan for the first time.

She nearly slipped but she caught her balance before she could fall.

Then she stood there for a moment.

It was very quiet.

“Kristoff?” She called.

There wasn’t an answer.

The waves lapping against the edges of the iceberg were so faint they were hardly audible.

Each passing second felt like an eternity of silence.

Nothing.

Not a single sound.

“Kristoff?” She called again taking a few steps, her voice echoing against the icy surface of Ahtohallan and into its deep caverns.

Still no answer.

She felt her throat closing quickly.

“No…” She shook her head setting off towards the base of the mountain of ice before her. “No. this is not how it ends. No, no, no. Kristoff!”

Her shriek sounded strangled and it echoed loudly out across Ahotohallan out into the sea.

It almost covered up the sound of somebody swearing.

“Jesus Christ, it’s freezing! Anna! Please tell me you brought my boots!”

She heard him well before she saw him.

His voice caused tears to spring to her eyes.

She’d heard it whispering to her in her dreams, but the sound of it, his real true voice, made one of those lovely matches strike inside her.

It had been so long since she’d felt that happen, she was nearly swept away in a wisp of heat at the feeling.

She swayed a bit.

Then she saw him, shivering as he came out of a cave at the base of Ahtohallan, his crystal glowing brightly on his chest. His beard was quite long, and his hair especially shaggy, but she didn’t think she’d ever thought he looked quite so handsome.

“Kristoff!” She barely managed to choke out, and she ran to him, slipping and sliding the whole way.

“Anna!” He cried happily and hurried out the rest of the way to meet her.

She slammed into him so hard she thought it might leave bruises, but she couldn’t help it.

He was there! He was a man! Real and solid!

“It worked! It worked, it worked, it worked!” She sobbed, clinging to him tightly.

“You’re here.” His voice sounded tight.

She only got the chance to hold him a bit longer before his shivering distracted her.

“Oh right! Your clothes!” She cried, picking up his things where she’d dropped them. “Here get dressed! Quick! I don’t want you to freeze to death.”

“I’m not going to freeze to death.” Kristoff chuckled, pulling on his pants quickly, then stepping into his boots. “You’re here!”

“Of course, I’m here!” Anna giggled, swiping at her cheeks, waiting for him to get his sweater over his head so she could attack him with kisses.

“You made it!” He laughed against the feeling of her lips, his big hands catching her face and treasuring it.

“Did you doubt my ability to become a master of the sea?” Anna giggled, positively giddy at the feel of his chilly fingertips on her face once more.

“Not for a second.” He chuckled.

Then he took a moment to pull her to his chest, so tight it almost hurt. He then kissed her so soundly and so deeply that her knees went weak, and she quite forgot where they were.

It was just her and Kristoff on the top of the world.

“I missed you so much.” She breathed when they finally broke apart.

“I missed you too.” He sighed, leaning his forehead against hers. “I was asleep the whole time, but it still felt like a year to me.”

She kissed him again. Then again. And then once more just because she could.

“Come on,” she finally whispered, “let’s go home.”

He gave her a lopsided grin and took her gloved hand in his and basically skipped alongside her back to her little boat, catching her when she slipped more than once.

“Where did you get the boat?” He asked when they’d boarded it.

“I don’t think we ever actually discussed this… but I actually have quite a bit of money.” Anna told him as she drew up the anchor, on a crank system.

Kristoff reached over and took over for her, and she went to the steering column of her little ship.

“Good to know I’ve married rich.” He chuckled. “I kind of got the idea that you and Elsa had a little bit, but you’re right. We never even once talked about it. I mean you did question me about my finances like the second time you saw me or something like that?”

“It was not the _second_ time I saw you,” she rolled her eyes, but was so happy to have him teasing her again she couldn’t keep up her annoyed façade, “but I’ve actually made quite a bit more with the success of my book.”

“You published your book?” Kristoff grinned, his eyes growing bright with pride as he looked at her.

“Mhmm.” She nodded. “It’s a children’s picture book about a boy who lives with trolls. He turns into a bear and his best friend is a reindeer.”

“Hmm. That sounds fascinating. I’ve never heard anything like it before.” Kristoff chuckled, coming up behind her and wrapping her up, dropping a kiss to her cheek.

His beard tickled her.

“Yep. It’s outrageously popular. I’m up to receive some awards with some indigenous literary groups.”

“Oh really?” Kristoff grinned.

“Mhmm.” She grinned as she navigated their way out of Ahtohallan’s cove and towards the sea, towards their home.

“I’m in no way surprised. I’m glad you’ve kept so busy.”

“Mhmm. Very busy.” Anna beamed, almost unable to contain her excitement any longer.

She pulled out a little sketch from her pocket and handed it to him. She couldn’t wait another minute, but she did her best to be nonchalant.

“What’s this?” He asked with a smile, opening it up.

He fell quiet, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion for a moment.

“Anna, what is this?”

“It’s just a picture I drew.” She shrugged her shoulders, trying to hide her grin, playing innocent.

“Of… of a baby?”

“Mhmm.”

“Anna.” Kristoff’s voice was serious, and he gripped her shoulder tightly like he might fall. “What is this?”

“It’s…” She couldn’t hide her smile anymore, or the tears that came to her eyes. “Well really it’s very funny. Elsa kept warning me that we’d better use protection, and I never even thought about a single time that night. I used to be on the pill so-“

“Anna are you saying…” He looked like he had swallowed his tongue. “Anna is this…”

“That’s your son.” She whispered.

He gently reached out and stroked the lines on the paper.

“My son?” He whispered faintly.

“Mhmm.” Anna nodded her head in excitement.

“I-I-” Kristoff stammered then reached out and caught Anna up so tightly, she thought if he pulled her any closer, they might become one person. “I dreamed about you… I dreamed you were pregnant… but I only thought that was wishful thinking of the future.”

“Really?” Anna asked pulling away slightly in surprise. “I dreamed that you were there with me sometimes!”

“Huh.” Kristoff laughed, tears trekking down his face. “We must have been having the same dream.”

“That’s not really possible is it?” Anna giggled.

“It’d have to be magic.” He chuckled back. “I can’t believe it! I have a son! What’s he like? What’s his name? Where is he now? Why didn’t you bring him?”

“Well he’s just two and a half months old. I couldn’t very well bring him out onto a boat on the open sea, so Elsa and Honeymaren are looking after him right now. Frankly, I think it’s giving them baby fever. And he’s perfect! He looks just like you and… You have to promise me you won’t be mad.”

“What, why?”

“I named him Bjorn.”

Kristoff threw back his head and laughed.

“You named our son ‘Bear’?”

“Uh huh!” She grinned and nodded. “I knew you’d like it. Elsa said she thought it was a bit redundant, but I insisted, if it was a boy, I was going to name him Bjorn. Bjorn Kristoff Bjorgman. It’s got a nice ring to it.”

“What if it had been a girl?”

“Katja.” Anna said simply, and Kristoff’s face went soft. “But I knew it was a boy. I don’t know how I knew, but I did. Though Ryder insisted that ‘Ryder’ is a unisex name and we should name our child after him because, apparently, in his mind, he is the one who got us together in the first place.”

“Oh, really?” Kristoff laughed.

“Mhmm.”

“Wow.” He sighed, loosening his hold on her ever so slightly, so she could continue to steer the boat. “I can hardly believe it. I have a son.”

“Mhmm. And I’ve told him all about you. I show him your pictures all the time.”

“My pictures?”

“Yep, I’ve got lots.” Anna said. “I’m an artist remember?”

Kristoff grinned at her and kissed the top of her head.

“Gods… I just… I can hardly believe it.”

“Yes, you’ve said that.” She giggled.

“Is there any way that this boat goes any faster?”

Anna opened up the throttle all the way.

*****

Bjorn was too young to care much about who held him. He preferred Anna above all others, naturally, but other than that he wasn’t particular. Though he always seemed to fill his diapers when Ryder held him, he usually spit up on Elsa’s shoulder, and gurgled most when Honeymaren had him.

Anna had worried that Kristoff might scare him though. He was such a big man, and without a moment to clean himself up, his hair and beard might be frightening for an infant.

As they had walked up to Elsa’s house (well they had run, really), Elsa and Honeymaren greeted them at the door, and Kristoff took pause.

Wrapped tightly against the cold, Honeymaren stood holding Bjorn up so he could properly see his father.

Anna had always thought Bjorn was a remarkably perceptive baby, from the moment he was born. When he’d been laid on her chest, he peeked open his eyes and stared right into her soul. He had reminded her of Kristoff so much it had almost been painful.

This moment was no exception.

Bjorn peered carefully at Kristoff. Surveying him.

Kristoff approached him a bit apprehensively.

“Hello Kristoff,” Elsa had come up to give him a brief hug, “we’re so glad you’re back.”

“Hello.” He reciprocated her hug, but he never took his eyes of Bjorn. “I’m glad to be here.”

Anna watched with bated breath as to what Bjorn was going to do.

To her utter delight, as Kristoff walked up to him slowly, his face broke out into a wide grin and he babbled happily. She’d been told that at two and half months, babies were really too young to recognize faces well, but Anna was convinced that he knew it was his father from her pictures.

“Hello, Bjorn.” Kristoff said taking him from Honeymaren’s arms. “I’m your Papa.”

Elsa gave Anna’s hand a quick squeeze and Anna realized she was crying.

“Come on,” Honeymaren said, growing a bit misty at the scene herself, “let’s go inside and get out of this cold.”

*****

Kristoff held Bjorn for hours, until he was fast asleep in his arms, barely tearing his eyes away from him. He watched every little movement, every little squirm, every little cry in complete awe.

Elsa was gracious enough to let them have her house to themselves for a night, knowing that it was too far to travel up to Kristoff’s cabin with a baby after such an eventful day. She and Honeymaren bid them goodnight, and Elsa gave her a happy squeeze before she left.

Then Kristoff and Anna laid Bjorn down in the bassinet in Elsa’s guest room. With arms wrapped around one another, they just stood watched him sleep for a long time.

“He’ll be up soon to eat.” Anna finally whispered pulling Kristoff away slowly.

“I just want to keep staring at him. He’s so perfect.”

“I want to kiss you for a bit.” She whispered to him.

“Okay.” Kristoff chuckled. “But I will have you know that literally nothing else could tear me away.”

Anna giggled tugging at his hand.

They stumbled into her old bedroom, the one that she often re-habited due to the fact that it was so much easier to stay at her sister’s house with a newborn.

But before they could kiss, they paused just to look at one another and smile.

“I need a haircut.” He commented. “It’s in my eyes.”

“You do.” Anna smiled and ran her fingers through the thick blond strands, marveling at it’s softness, pushing it back from his face so she could really look at him.

She loved the way his eyes crinkled around the edges when he smiled and looked at her.

She loved when he smiled at her.

She loved that he was there! In front of her!

“My beard needs to-“

“Don’t you dare shave it off.” She said sternly, and he laughed.

“I was going to say it needs to be trimmed. If I’m going to keep it, I’d rather it not be so long.”

“Okay, good.” Anna said nodding firmly, popping up on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the lips. “I know I've said it before, but I like the beard.”

Then she kissed him again.

And she didn’t stop kissing him until they were suddenly both lying on her bed, panting and desperately removing clothes. 

When she pulled his shirt off her eyes caught on the crystal still tied around his neck, hanging low on his chest and glowing brightly.

She reached out and touched it softly.

“I missed you so much.” She whispered to him, and it made him pause, which wasn’t exactly the effect she’d been hoping to have when she said that, but she couldn’t complain when he wrapped his arms around her tightly.

“I missed you too.” His voice was strangled and tight. “I’m so sorry you had to go through this all alone. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”

“Kristoff, it’s okay.” She breathed, looking up into his eyes.

His lovely brown eyes. The ones that she had been so grateful Bjorn had taken after.

“No, it’s not.” He shook his head.

“Yes, it is.” She gently kissed him. “I knew what I was getting into. And I would do it all again.”

“You would?” He asked softly.

“Mhmm. Again and again and again. This tells me it’s true.” She tapped the crystal on his chest which seemed to throb lightly at her words, but he still seemed a bit skeptical. “Kristoff, I don’t think you realize that you’ve given me everything I’ve ever wanted.”

Kristoff merely looked at her puzzled, and she could tell it was because he was only seeing things from the perspective of having to be away for a time.

“You have! Kristoff, you helped give me purpose. I would have never even started drawing if I hadn’t been so struck with your eyes. And if I hadn’t started drawing again, I would still be moping around Elsa’s house trying to find out what I should do with myself. I wouldn’t have ever drawn out your story, and I never would have published it.”

“You would have found your way to it somehow.” He shrugged.

“No, I don’t think I would have. But you’ve given me something so much more important than just a career path.”

“Oh?”

“Yes! You goob. You! You’ve given me your love. You’ve given me your heart. You gave me Bjorn! Without you I wouldn’t have what I have _always_ wanted; a family.”

“I just… whenever I would dream of you… you looked so small and alone.”

Anna sighed into him, burrowing her nose into his neck.

“I knew I wasn’t completely alone though.”

And she was telling him the truth. She had known, somehow, in the deepest part of her heart that he had been there with her. Somehow.

“I just wish I had been here, for real. I wish I had been able to help you through everything.”

“Well next time you will be.”

“Next time, huh? Another one already?” He waggled his eyebrows and pulled her in tighter. “I’ve only held Bjorn one time.”

“No,” She sniggered. “I’m not quite ready for another. I’m barely over the first one. But someday.”

“Someday.” He sighed, tucking his chin over the top of her head.

His hand drifted to find hers and hold it to his bare chest.

“We have so many ‘someday’s ahead of us.” She couldn’t help but grin and squeeze him tight.

“We do.”

He ran his thumb over the wedding band she had on her finger, the one she had been so hesitant to get resized but had eventually done because he’d asked her to wear it.

“Like someday really soon we have to get married in the eyes of the law.” Anna giggled.

“Yes, I suppose I should make an honest woman out of you, shouldn’t I?”

A small wail interrupted their conversation, alerting them that Bjorn was awake once again.

“We didn’t even get to the good stuff.” Anna gave a small sigh and started to sit up.

“Don’t!” Kristoff caught her. “You stay here, I’ll get him!”

He practically bolted off the bed and out of the room. When he came back, ever so slowly, he was holding Bjorn with such care and with such a look of reverence that Anna thought her heart may burst.

“He went back to sleep?” She whispered.

“Mhmm.” He nodded, a faint smile on his face. “As soon as I picked him up.”

“Bring him here, then.” She patted the bed.

Kristoff laid him down carefully, tucked into Anna’s chest, and slid in beside him.

After a long while of just admiring and adoring him Kristoff finally said, “He does look a bit like me, doesn’t he?”

“Exactly like you.” Anna grinned up at him. “Everybody thinks so, but nobody more than Bulda.”

“The next one is going to look just like you then.” He leaned over, careful not to disturb the baby, and kissed her. “A feisty, ginger, little girl.”

“I don’t think we _really_ get much say in those sorts of things.” Anna giggled, but felt herself blush at the prospect.

“Mmm. I think we do.” Kristoff murmured.

Anna realized with surprise that he was tired and was beginning to fall asleep. She had never seen him fall asleep as a man before and the sight of his eyelids drooping made those matches that still burned within her give a happy flutter.

She held her breath, watching to see if he would let sleep claim him.

“I still haven’t had the chance to read your book.” He commented idly, his eyes fluttering open for a moment and his hand reaching out to grasp hers, their fingers laced just beneath Bjorn’s feet.

“That’s okay. You should get some rest. You can look at it tomorrow.” She told him and he nodded slowly, his eyes slipping closed again.

“Does it have a happy ending?”

“The happiest.”

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The wonderful Liv (ahtohallan_calling) wrote a FANTASTIC companion piece to this fic that I highly recommend reading if you've made it this far -----> https://archiveofourown.org/works/22090840


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